Ferghana.Ru  Delegations of EU officials made numerous visits to Uzbekistan these last several months. Every such visit was shrouded in a veil of secrecy. Uzbek media outlets made no mention of them at all. European ones reported the visits only in passing since they lacked any information on the negotiations under way. What the negotiations were about and their results will probably become clear from the conclusions to be reported at the meeting of EU Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels on November 13-14.

What everyone wants to know is the future of EU sanctions against Uzbekistan. Military cooperation with this country was restricted and twelve senior officials of the Uzbek government were proclaimed personae non grata in Europe in the wake of the public outcry in the West caused by brutal suppression of anti-government protests in Andijan in May 2005.

Washington and Brussels suspended contacts with official Tashkent when survivors, journalists, and human rights activists reported how units of the regular army had mowed down hundreds of noncombatants in Andijan.

A delegation of the Human Rights Committee of the Bundestag headed by Holger Haibach visited Uzbekistan in the middle of October. Haibach said in an interview with Uznews.net afterwards that he had failed to see an improvement with human rights in Uzbekistan and promised to recommend prolongation of the sanctions. "The sanctions should be lifted only when we have seen amelioration of the situation with human rights in the country, not when the government makes promises," Haibach said on his return from Tashkent.

According to the German parliamentarian, delegation members had seen no improvement in Uzbekistan with their own eyes. Worse, they saw Uzbek secret services keeping local human rights activists under surveillance. Haibach said that the government of Uzbekistan could count on better relations with Germany only if and when the local authorities heeded the recommendations and suggestions made during the visit.

One of the recommendations concerns international investigation of the evens in Andijan in May 2005. Haibach is stone-cold confident that Tashkent shouldn't count on any improvement of the relations with Germany without it. Independent experts in the meantime suspect that it is economic considerations, not humanitarian, that will play the decisive role.

Cristina Gallach, Press Secretary to the EU High Commissar for Foreign Policy, claims that the EU has so far failed to see any positive changes in Uzbekistan. "We are still evaluating the situation. I can only say at this point that we are not seeing what we have expected to see accomplished by now," Uznews.net quoted Gallach as saying. And yet, Javier Solana's press secretary admits that the European Union would like to increment its presence in Central Asia. Solana even appointed a new EU representative to Central Asia earlier this month. Pierre Morel's functions and tasks do not really differ from those of his predecessor.

Morel and another EU delegation visited Uzbekistan last week. Morel met with Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov in Tashkent.

According to Uzmetronom.com, there is nothing secret or actually unexpected about the demands official Tashkent put forth as the condition to renew negotiations: forget the situation with human rights in Uzbekistan, skip the events in Andijan and how the authorities handled them, and tear into pieces the personae non grata list of twelve Uzbek officials unwelcome in Europe.

Sergei Yezhkov, independent expert and free-lancing journalist, is convinced that Europe will swallow it all despite the absence of progress with human rights and democratic freedoms in Uzbekistan. "Europe is morbidly afraid that Russia, China, and Iran will boost their clout [with Central Asian countries - Ferghana.Ru]. It will put up with everything as long as it is permitted to stay in the region. The authorities of Uzbekistan stand to benefit too. The limited political isolation is about to become history with all it implies. Uzbekistan in the meantime needs European investments, European capitals, and European brains," Yezhkov shrugged.

That Europe is taking interest in Uzbekistan and cooperation with this country is undisputable. A lot of geopolitical vectors changed in the year that passed since the Andijan outrage. The EU is about to grasp the idea that Russia is going to promote its own interests in the energy sphere. Once it has finally dawned on it, the European Union will start looking for alternative oil and gas exporters.

There is one other nuance that explains the secrecy that surrounds EU-Uzbek negotiations. Neither party wants to make it plans known to Moscow as long as it can help it. Afraid of "Putin's gas monopoly", Europe is maneuvering on the eve of the energy accord signing. Russia has been Uzbekistan's "closest strategic partner" since 2005, but Tashkent refuses to impart its rapprochement plans to the Kremlin.