Eurasian Economic Union Treaty ‘almost ready'

MINSK. KAZINFORM - The approved text of the treaty to establish the Eurasian Economic Union has already been sent to representatives of the three countries and is going through intrastate procedures prior to being signed, Kazinform has learned from BelTA referring to Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Guryanov.

"Last week a session of our council at the level of vice premiers took place. The text of the treaty was polished virtually upon the instruction of the presidents of the three countries. Today vigorous preparations to sign the document at the level of intrastate procedures are now in progress. Therefore, the relevant agreements have been reached. We are working within the framework of these agreements," said Alexander Guryanov. He added that the text is unlikely to change. Only minor editing may happen before the document is signed in Astana on 29 May.

The official also explained that over 100 documents signed within the framework of the Customs Union and 17 agreements of the Single Economic Space will be transferred into the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty. "It will be done to prevent domestic and foreign users from having to deal with a large number of documents," noted Alexander Guryanov. This is why the text of the treaty will be rather large.

According to the diplomat, the Eurasian Economic Union represents a rather advanced form of integration. "In addition to the simple movement of commodities and services we are going to reach the phase involving workforce, finance and certain parameters of joint macroeconomic planning," he said. The Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister pointed out that the treaty will definitely include the option to add new member states.

The document is very important from the political point of view, noted Alexander Guryanov while saying that the document represents another step of progressive integration. He did not rule out that some parameters of the Eurasian Economic Union may be adjusted in the future. "We have agreed some parameters as ready clauses of the treaty while some parameters will have yet to be corrected during the operation of the union. Those include the achievement of the freedom of the movement of services, capital, workforce, and commodities. Some exemptions will be removed, so to say, in the course of the work," explained the Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister.

In turn, Belarusian Justice Minister Oleg Slizhevsky pointed out that Belarus' Council of Ministers had already approved the draft treaty.