The Eurasian Economic Union discusses the priorities for the development of the integration of the “five”

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has begun discussing further priorities for the development of the integration of the “five” – ​​on Thursday at a meeting of the intergovernmental council in Armenian Tsaghkadzor, the prime ministers of the participating countries considered draft declarations on such plans until 2030 and 2045. So far, countries have different understandings of such prospects, but among the common priorities are the development of transport and logistics connectivity, financial markets, industrial cooperation, and food security. The “five” intends to settle the approaches by December, when the priority areas are planned to be submitted for approval by the presidents, and after that, move on to detailing the announced plans.

The meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of the EAEU was held in a somewhat non-standard mode – although at the last meeting in June in Sochi, the prime ministers agreed on Kyrgyzstan as the venue for the next meeting, in the end it was decided to gather in the Armenian mountain resort of Tsakhkadzor. Also, contrary to the tradition, first to discuss the agenda issues in a narrow format, this time the heads of government decided to immediately start the meeting in an expanded format – and as a result, they did not sign any documents. The latter, however, is explained by the fact that the meeting agenda included the only issue – the further development of integration into the EAEU for the medium and long term – as noted by the Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko, the meeting became a kind of “strategic session”.

We are talking about the development of a draft new declaration on the main tasks and key directions for the unification of the EAEU until 2030 and 2045 – it will have to continue the current strategy for 2020–2025.

Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin proposed to prepare specific initiatives to fill cooperation by December, when there will be a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, so that the presidents could adopt this strategic document. As Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk explained, all the countries of the “five” agree on the need to develop such a document. As Roman Golovchenko noted, the main benefits from ensuring the four basic freedoms within the EAEU – the movement of goods, services, capital and labor – have already been received, the union has given away its “seed capital” and requires the launch and promotion of new formats of economic interaction.

Judging by the meeting, at least two drafts have been prepared – the authorship of Russia and Kazakhstan.

The Russian one, according to Mikhail Mishustin, among the priorities provides for the creation of a common payment space based on national currencies, increased interaction with other countries and regional associations (BRICS, SCO, ASEAN), as well as the development of technological and industrial potential – for the first half of 2023, industrial production in the EAEU increased by 3% in annual terms, and countries are counting on more, including through the upcoming launch of a mechanism for supranational financing of industrial cooperation projects. In addition, the Russian prime minister noted, it is necessary to create “a single space of guaranteed supply of key goods and resources – first of all, we are talking about food and energy security.” In this part, proposals were received on Thursday: Roman Golovchenko announced the need to set the task by 2030 to reach some threshold of self-sufficiency in seed and breeding material – for example, 80%. Also, he noted, the adoption of new documents “should in no way weaken efforts to implement the strategy for the development of Eurasian integration until 2025” – “one cannot allow unfulfilled measures to migrate to the next document.” Among the unresolved issues remains the single market for energy resources, as well as the search for sources and ways of financing priority infrastructure projects aimed at increasing the transit potential of the EAEU. Mr. Golovchenko proposed to use “the potential of relations with the SCO and BRICS” in this matter.

In general, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan considered the Russian project “interesting”, noting the “nuances” that need to be discussed, since the positions of the member countries differ.

However, this year, within the framework of the Russian chairmanship, Alexey Overchuk said, it is planned to determine the main priorities for the time being, while a deeper study is planned for next year already under the chairmanship of Kazakhstan. The priorities outlined by Kazakhstan in its project, as follows from the speech of the country’s Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, largely overlap with Russian ones, but also involve the development of the institution of observer countries (these are Moldova, Uzbekistan and Cuba), as well as the Eurasian Economic Commission.

To determine the vectors of development, the Kazakh prime minister emphasized, it is necessary to analyze the current state of affairs and the reasons for non-fulfillment of certain agreements – now the EEC is preparing such a report. In the meantime, taking into account the fact that not everything is working as planned, and the union is “going through the stage of maturation,” Alikhan Smailov urged “not to get carried away by being drawn into the integration of new areas.” A more free approach was proposed by Roman Golovchenko: the declaration should be “innovative” and not necessarily “limited by the current treaty on the EAEU” – “this is a plan for further development, which will be transformed into a concrete solution, taking into account all national interests.”

Evgenia Kryuchkova, Tsaghkadzor