According to a leaked diplomatic cable via Wikileaks, France threatened to veto the Eastern Partnership if Poland and Sweden did not agree to begin easing relations with Russia after Russia invaded Georgia in the summer of 2008.
As originally reported by the daily Rzeczpospolita, the information was gathered by the US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Robert Silverman and reported via a secure diplomatic cable, which was leaked yesterday. While it could be argued that something like a quid pro quo is quite common in EU politics, outright bribery is quite rare, according to Civic Platform MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, who was quoted as saying that,
Once the decision on talks on the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement [with Russia] was made, Sweden and Poland, co-drafters of the [Eastern Partnership] initiative, were given the green light to ‘move ahead’.
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