The level-of-analysis problem has always permeated EU-Russia relations. It has been approached in either a structural or an institutional way. This contribution suggests a new, thematic, approach, which diff erentiates among long-term visionary goals, policy goals and implementation instruments. This new approach is applied to EU-Russia relations to draw attention to the fact that a qualitative improvement in the interaction between Moscow and Brussels can be made through the convergence on policy goals, which has so far been missing.