MOSCOW (AP) - The European Union will formally recognize Russia as a market economy, European Commission President Romano Prodi announced at a summit in Moscow on Wednesday, a key and long-awaited step for Russia more than a decade after the Soviet economy collapsed.
"I am delighted to announce to you today that we are going to grant full market economy status to Russia," Prodi told Russian President Vladimir Putin at the start of a Russia-EU summit in the Kremlin. "What we promise, Mr. President, we deliver."
Earlier in the talks, Putin had criticized overall relations with the EU as "going around in circles," citing Russia's longstanding bid to be formally recognized as a market economy as a key hangup.
The recognition is a vital preliminary step in Russia's 7-year-old bid to join the World Trade Organization, and will boost Russia's access to world markets. It came just days after a U.S.-Russian summit at which Putin failed to win a similar pledge from President George W. Bush.
Russian officials are lobbying hard for EU support for Moscow's bid to join the WTO. Since China's accession, Russia is the largest world economy still outside the organization.
EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said Tuesday that the EU still has reservations about the structure of Russia's domestic energy markets, which are characterized by heavy subsidies.