Eurasian Economic Union open for neighboring countries - Putin

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is open for other countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after a summit of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. “The EEU is open for work with all our neighbors, in the framework of the CIS, open for our partners in the east and west,” Putin said, adding that the treaty on Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the EEU was signed at the meeting. The Russian president said the participation of Armenia that signed such a treaty earlier and Kyrgyzstan in the EEU will contribute to the countries’ development. “The growth of the number of participants is for the good of the Union itself as well: it increases the size of its market, contributes to the strengthening of trade and economic ties, the launch of new investment projects,” he said. The president recalled that starting from the formation of the Customs Union, Russia has been consistently going along all stages of integration with its partners in the EEU. “We were systematically bringing together and have brought together, synchronized both our joint work in trade and in other economic spheres, and now we are switching over to a higher degree of integration with unhindered movement of goods, services, capital and workforce,” Putin said, adding that a common market operating on the basis of World Trade Organization rules is being created. The aggregate GDP of that market exceeds $4.5 trillion. Putin pledged that EEU member states will conduct a coordinated policy in agriculture, industry, transport, the power industry and strive to concertedly use sanitary and technical regulations. The president recalled that a common pharmaceutical market is to be created by 2016. A common electric power market should appear by 2019, and a common market of oil, gas and oil products should appear by 2025. The same year, a supranational body regulating the Union’s financial market should go operational in Almaty, the largest city of Kazakhstan. The Russian head of state said “Eurasian integration is built on the basis of mutual benefit, mutual respect and account for each other’s opinions.” He recalled that the participants of the EEU have equal rights and duties and are represented in its governing structures. “We still have a lot to do for the Eurasian union to turn into a powerful center of economic growth,” Putin said. “We are perfectly aware of where we are, what the positions of our economies are, where they have weak spots and what world we are living in. Unification of efforts will certainly help overcome all problems.” The Russian president positively assessed the talks, stressing that clear guidelines have been outlined and specific plans for the future adopted. The new integration association - the Eurasian Economic Union - will start operating on January 1, 2015. Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia make part of the EEU. Today’s meeting of the Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh presidents is the final one in the process to establish the EEU. Thus, the largest association with a consumer market of over 170 million people will start operating in a few days on the post-Soviet space. It will function on the basis of the World Trade Organization’s norms and principles and will ensure freedom of movement of goods, services, capitals and labor force. Kyrgyzstan will join the EEU on May 1, 2015. Armenia, which has ratified all required documents, will become a full-fledged member from January 2. Vladimir Putin and his counterparts from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan met in Belarusian capital Minsk on October 10 to sign documents to eliminate the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC). The association will be replaced by the Eurasian Economic Union as of the start of 2015. The EurAsEC secretariat will continue to operate until the end of this year. It will be disbanded as of 2015. EurAsEC has operated for more than 14 years. The treaty to establish it was signed on October 10, 2000. In August 2006, EurAsEC countries made the decision to establish a Customs Union with a common customs tariff for all member states. On November 27, 2009 the presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan decided to shift to a deeper form of economic integration, the Common Economic Space, as of 2012. The next step along the same lines was taken when on May 29, 2014 the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus signed a treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, which will go operational on January 1, 2015. Read more