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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
The meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council was held in a business-like, constructive atmosphere. Together with the Presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan we discussed pressing issues dealing with the development of Eurasian economic integration and summarised the substantial amount of joint work performed since our meeting in Minsk in October.
“Russia is set on continuing balanced cooperation with Belarus and Kazakhstan to develop a large-scale Eurasian economic project. We have agreed to keep up the practice of having at least three meetings of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council every year. This will allow us to maintain the rapid pace of integration efforts.”
First of all, we managed to make significant progress in drafting the Agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union. On the whole, our experts have finalised the main, institutional section of the agreement, which establishes the international legal status, goals and mechanisms of the future union’s activity and reflects the basic principles of the Eurasian integration process. Among these are adherence to fair and mutually advantageous cooperation on – I would like to stress this – an equal basis, efforts to achieve the overall development of the member states’ economies, to strengthen their competitiveness and, most importantly, to enhance the well-being of our citizens.
The next step is the development of the functional, or departmental, section of the draft Agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union. This section should establish specific commitments of the three member states to guarantee the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour.
We are working more actively on the remaining exemptions from the common trade and investment regulations. We have agreed that we will gradually reduce them to a minimum or to zero.
Experts were given instructions to finalise work on the departmental section of the Agreement by March 2014. I would like to stress that the Customs Union member states intend to strictly abide by the timeframe we have adopted, so that we can sign the Agreement no later than May 2014 and then pass it on to the parliaments of our states for ratification. This would give the legislators enough time to complete all relevant ratification procedures, so that the Eurasian Economic Union can become fully operational as of January 1, 2015, as planned. In any case, we will make every effort to achieve this.
The three member states are making a special effort to improve conditions for business on the entire integration space. A special data system is being created to optimise information exchange on import-export operations.
“We managed to make significant progress in drafting the Agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union. On the whole, our experts have finalised the main, institutional section of the agreement, which establishes the international legal status, goals and mechanisms of the future union’s activity.”
Today we have taken decisions designed to protect honest and fair competition. The Eurasian Economic Commission – a supranational body – has been given authority to monitor compliance in this area, while violations of the common rules of competition will be considered by a special body of the EurAsEC Court.
I would like to stress that our integration project is already bearing fruit: in the past three years, trade within the Customs Union has grown by more than 30% (21 billion). Kazakhstan and Belarus jointly rank third in Russia’s foreign trade balance, after the EU and China.
As I have already mentioned earlier today, the structure of mutual trade is improving through an increase in the share of high added value goods. We believe that this is a very important indicator of the quality of our relations. At the same time we do not wish to retreat from other markets; on the contrary, we aim to develop multi-faceted cooperation with both individual countries and integration unions, like the European Union. We proceed from the notion that European and Eurasian integration can effectively complement each other. Incidentally, a Russia-EU summit is to be held shortly, in the new year. I hope we touch upon these issues with our European colleagues as well.
“We aim to develop multi-faceted cooperation with both individual countries and integration unions, like the European Union. We proceed from the notion that European and Eurasian integration can effectively complement each other.”
The Presidents of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan and the Prime Minister of Ukraine attended the expanded format meeting of the Eurasian Economic Council. We welcome their effort to achieve closer cooperation. We have approved the roadmap for Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, and a similar draft document regarding Kyrgyzstan is also nearing completion. We have agreed that we will continue work to finalise it on expert level straight away, without delay.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that Russia is set on continuing balanced cooperation with Belarus and Kazakhstan to develop a large-scale Eurasian economic project. We have agreed with Mr Nazarbaev and Mr Lukashenko to keep up the practice of having at least three meetings of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council every year. This will allow us to maintain the rapid pace of integration efforts that we have achieved next year as well.
Thank you for your attention.
December 24, 2013, The Kremlin, Moscow