ABSTRACT
The chapter looks into the role regional multilateral institutions, such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe (CoE) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), play in the EU–Russia relationship. Both the EU and Russia have interests and concerns in Europe and Asia, and they choose different ways of dealing with them. The EU’s ambition to promote ‘effective multilateralism’ suggests support for multilateral organisations, but the EU’s real-life record is more mixed. While the OSCE and CoE are broadly inclusive regional institutions, this does not and will not help them to become central in the foreseeable future, because the EU and NATO chose to enlarge both geographically and in the scope of their activities. The SCO presents a case where the roles are reversed – Russia forms part of the organisation, while the EU is excluded. These exclusionary memberships do not help either the EU or Russia to develop their mutual cooperation. Given the political conditions in place since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, the EU and Russia will hardly be able to significantly improve the effectiveness of regional multilateral institutions soon.
