The EU-Russia summit which just had place in Samara has not managed to solve the current problems in the EU-Russia relations. The problem centres on their inability to forge an agreement on the renewal of their Partnership and Co-operation Agreement of 1997,  as the Polish government continues to block EU efforts for further negotiations with Russia. Poland's main gripe is that Russia continues to attempt to influence Polish politics more than 17 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall - in this case, Putin is refusing to allow Poland to export meat to Russia. But this current impasse has succeeded in demonstrating something else: proving that the EU can stand together in foreign affairs.

The Polish veto showed that either the EU did not want to listen to earlier Polish requests to have their views on Russia taken into account - or that Polish diplomacy had not yet managed to exert influence within the EU. Poland decided to veto EU-Russia negotiations  as she felt isolated on the issue of EU-Russia relations and feared that the EU would continue negotiations with Moscow - even without Polish agreement. Russia’s expectations were similar. Even after Angela Merkel’s declaration that the case of the Russian embargo on Polish meat is not a bilateral problem, but the EU problem, Putin still seemed to insist the opposite. After Samara he had to admit that solidarity among the EU  member states is no longer a distant proposition.

But Polish veto is actually mainly not about the meat, and not about the energy security. It is about the Polish position within the EU .

After the Samara summit, Polish decision makers and experts declared: we got what we wanted. Therefore what Poland actually wanted was the declaration of solidarity, proving that Poland is an equal EU member and Russia is not going to achieve anything playing only with big EU powers: France or Germany. The Polish veto was not aimed at Russia - but at the EU itself.

The declaration of the European solidarity made at Samara is a very important sign for Russia, that the time of bilateral relations with major EU states is over and Poland, Lithuania and Estonia can block the development of relations with Russia. The game of playing on the EU division lines is becoming very risky for Moscow.

It also carries a very important message for Poland: your problems are our problems, we solve them together.

In Samara the EU demonstrated its solidarity with Poland. The question remains, however - will Poland now start to demonstrate more solidarity with the EU itself?