Russia Should Consider New Ways of Integration With Eu - Russian Orthodox Church Official

By: iStockAnalyst Thursday, July 31, 2008 7:54 PM

MOSCOW. July 31 (Interfax) - Russia should find new forms of involvement in integration processes on the European continent or reconsider the already existing ones, said a Russian Orthodox Church official.

"It would be a mistake to think that the Moldovans, Belarusians, Ukrainians, or Russians are not Europeans only because they live outside the European Union," Father Georgy Ryabykh, an acting secretary for relations between the church and society at the Moscow Patriarchate's External Relations Department, said at a conference attended by members of the Russian Orthodox Church and the European People's Party in Kyiv.

The participants in the conference talked about the possibility of Belarus', Ukraine's, Moldova's, and Georgia's accession to the EU in the future, Father Georgy said.

"But why isn't anyone talking about Russia and its possible accession to this association? Why should these countries necessarily form their European vector on anti-Russian positions and why should Russia reject this vector?" he said.

"It looks extremely important to find a new institutional framework for pan-European unity or significantly modify the already existing organizations," he said.

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