On 1 June, in the margins of the EU-Russia summit, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy signed an Agreement with the Russian Federation on the protection of classified information. This Agreement represents a significant step forward in EU-Russian relations and is a measure of the level of confidence in further developing cooperation in future.

The Agreement establishes the conditions to ensure appropriate protection of any classified information exchanged between the EU and the Russian Federation in all and any areas of cooperation. It does not create any obligation to exchange information but will greatly facilitate cooperation, for example, in the area of crisis management operations and in projects which require access to classified material.

On the Russian side the Agreement was signed by Mr Sergey Smirnov, First Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation.

Direct link to the press release