On December 5, a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Council was held in Moscow. It was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Natalia Petkevich.
Natalya Petkevich emphasized that today's meeting of the EEC Council has a packed agenda, as it precedes the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meetings. “Therefore, we need to prepare all issues for the consideration of both the heads of government and heads of state quite promptly. A number of issues on which we do not reach consensus will be submitted to the highest level,’ she said.
According to the deputy prime minister, a set of issues at the EEC Council meeting will focus on implementing the Eurasian economic integration development strategy through 2025. “Unfortunately, we still have some unresolved issues, and we are trying to find consensus. Several items of the strategy will not be fulfilled due to objective reasons. Some will remain unfulfilled due to, let's say, subjective ones, because we haven't reached agreement. We understand that we are not yet ready for such extremely close integration. But we will conclude this year with more or less decent results,” she stated.
“We must clearly understand that, unlike, say, the CIS (which is a unique universal platform, as cooperation within the CIS spans all areas: economic, political, socio-humanitarian, military), the EAEU is an economic platform, but the rules adopted within the EAEU framework are mandatory,” Natalya Petkevich explained. “We operate in the context of a single market, and therefore, we strive to develop unified rules of the game that are binding for all five member states. This is, of course, quite difficult. Consequently, both adopting these rules and making any necessary deviations from them must be done by consensus, unanimously. Therefore, given this challenging formula, along with differing operating conditions and varying levels of economic development, I believe we are looking at decent results in terms of implementation of the five-year strategy.”
“Another set of issues, on which we likely need to reach some conclusions today, is the plan of action to the declaration for the next five-year period. We still have unresolved matters here as well, but they are becoming fewer and fewer, which is good,” Natalya Petkevich stated.
According to her, a significant set of matters on the agenda at the EEC Council meeting will concern the unified customs space and product labeling. “A separate topic of concern to everyone is the issue related to food security and the supply of certain groups of goods,” Natalya Petkevich specified.
“Therefore, the work ahead is quite intensive, but the main thing is that everyone is determined to move forward,” the Belarusian deputy prime minister said.
