EU-Russia summit set for November 18-19 in Stockholm

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union and Russia are due to hold their next summit in Stockholm on November 18-19, despite Moscow's reluctance for it to take place in Sweden, an official confirmed Tuesday.

The date was set on the agenda of a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, while an official close to the Swedish EU presidency confirmed the host city.

In July, a Swedish government official said that Russia had sought a meeting in an alternative venue such as Brussels, given tensions in relations over Sweden's vocal denounciations of human rights violations in Russia.

Neither did Moscow appreciate the Swedish-Polish initiative last year for an EU "Eastern Partnership" to allow Europe to boost ties with six former Soviet-bloc states; Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

EU-Russia summits are held every six months, and alternate between cities in Russia and th country holding the European Union's six-month rotating presidency. The last one was held in May in Khabarovsk, in Russia's far east.