European Union president Finland intervened at the highest level on Thursday to try to break a deadlock between Poland and Russia that threatens to block the launch of landmark talks on an EU-Russia strategic partnership next week, Reuters reported. Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen's office announced he would visit Warsaw on Friday for dinner talks with his Polish counterpart, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, on the dispute over food exports and energy policy. Warsaw is blocking consensus in the 25-nation EU on a negotiating mandate for a new agreement due to be initiated at an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki on Nov. 24, in protest against a Russian ban on imports of meat and some other foods from Poland. "The prime ministers will discuss the launch of negotiations on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Russia," the Finnish government said in a statement. A senior Polish government official said: "We hope this will bring this issue forward significantly. We are glad something is happening." The executive European Commission is trying to help find a way out by sending a fact-finding mission of experts to verify that Polish food exports meet EU health and safety standards in a bid to persuade Moscow to lift the ban.
