Lukashenko Wants EEU Troubles Resolved without Delay
OREANDA-NEWS. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is confident that all problems that might arise while forming the Eurasian Economic Union should be settled now, but not in ten years.
Presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which form the Customs Union, met up in Minsk on April 29 to discuss the bottlenecks of the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty to be signed on May 29.
“Some say we should leave unsettled the problems we should have solved at previous stages,” Lukashenko said while opening a restricted attendance meeting.
“Approaches stated in the process of negotiations give rise to numerous questions,” Lukashenko noted. “Proposals to postpone the deadlines for implementing agreements by 2025 sound strange, to say the least.”
If the sides are not ready to act now, they should openly acknowledge the fact, Lukashenko said.
Belarus believes that the current agenda should include concrete landmark stages, the first of which was the formation of the full-format Customs Union. Member states of such Union, in his words, should have no restrictions in commodity movement. If any commodity restrictions, especially applicable to fuels, were preserved for a long time, it would create undesired precedents, Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko pointed out that he was opposed to integration for integration's sake and insisted on achieving concrete results. “On January 1, 2015 we will have to report progress to our citizens,” he added.
“There are fears that economic difficulties might arise. We are fully aware of that, but otherwise we should speak about the Eurasian Economic Union in ten years, too,” he said.
He noted that other aspects of the future Eurasian Economic Union were worth discussing as well. Such aspects, in his words, included cargo trucking from thirds countries. “Isn't it absurd that Polish, Lithuanian and other freight forwarders take advantage from the integration of our countries,” he noted.
He stressed that the future Eurasian Economic Union's attractiveness to other countries would depend largely on its efficiency.
“Our position is to admit other members in accordance with the package principle, without any special conditions or statuses,” he stressed, adding that it would be fair in respect of the founder countries.
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