A QUIET SUMMIT

THE European Union does not hold many emergency summit meetings -- before this week the previous one was in 2003 when members met to decide how to react to Britain's settled determination to join the United States in invading Iraq. It was right of President Sarkozy to call Monday's special summit to discuss relations with Russia even if there was little of substance in the final communiqué. In fact the low-key outcome was a success in itself.

Last Sunday Gordon Brown had an ill-considered article in The Observer in which he called for a “root and branch” review of the EU's future dealings with Moscow. Perhaps he was trying to outdo his Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who has been issuing warnings to Russia about its future behaviour which Britain is in no position to carry out. So if Monday's meeting had to content itself with an offer to provide ceasefire observers to monitor Russia's compliance with the original ceasefire agreement negotiated by President Sarkozy and a postponement of impending trade talks with Russia, there is no reason for disappointment at the outcome. The point is that time has been bought for more careful consideration of the position that the EU -- and Russia -- should take after the events of the past month. The agreement reached yesterday should prevent Britain and some of the EU Baltic states from making more empty threats. In the meantime President Sarkozy will visit Moscow next Monday for further discussion on implementation of the ceasefire.