MOSCOW. April 9 (Interfax) - Russia is dissatisfied with European Union attempts to put its legal system above laws of the Council of Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"This is a very serious, drastic turn by Brussels away from what we have always agreed upon, the understanding that the Council of Europe and its legislation will always rank first," he said at a press conference, after negotiations with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders.
"Negotiations on the acceptance of the 'Council of Europe comes first' principle were held for a very long time. It was accepted but our partners from the European Union deviated from it lately," the Russian minister pointed out.
He cited as an example the EU decision to freeze the accession to the European Convention on Human Rights and to indefinitely delay the joining of the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data.
The European Union explained its decisions by the intention to regulate the issues inside the EU before presenting them to other members of the Council of Europe, Lavrov said.
"I know that some EU countries are displeased. We have discussed that with Mr. Reynders today. He shares our concerns but, probably, some measures should be taken to resolve the systemic problem of who makes decisions in the European Union and how in order to avoid harm done to common European interests and projects," Lavrov said.