EU, Russia, and common economic space

Russia is, with the exception of the USA, the single most important outside country for the European Union.Still, it just account for a few percentage points of EU global trade, even less of EU outward investment.The Union, on the other hand, accounts for about one half of Russia's foreign trade.The relation therefore is, though important, asymmetric. Institutionally the Union and Russia have been building their relation since the 1990´s, but development was much enhanced by the northern and eastern enlargements of the Union on the one hand, and by Russia´s "European Choice" as declared by President Putin. Still, developing the relation has not been simple, and in many instances this is caused by the underlying asymmetries of the relation.This paper outlines both the institutional and underlying economic basis of the relation and argues that it will remain a complicated one in the future as well. Key words: European Union; European Neighbourhood Policy; Russia/EU relations.