Eurasian Economic Union draft to be ready by mid-2014

The draft project of the Eurasian Economic Union will be ready by mid-2014, Tengrinews.kz reports quoting President Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying after the 35th sitting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council in Moscow. “17 documents regulating the Common Economic Space have been adopted, with another 52 to be adopted in 2013. By mid-2014 we will have drafted a full-fledged concept of the Eurasian Economic Union and we hope to launch the Union January 1, 2015”, President Nazarbayev said at a press-conference in Moscow. President reminded that the EurAsEC was among the most developed integration entities in the post-Soviet space after the CIS had become “amorphous” and it had perfectly reached its goals. “Out of the EurAsEC we have created the Customs Union and now are creating the Single Economic Space. However, the EurAsEC is being also maintained as a separate entity as it includes Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, both willing to join the Customs Union. It will take them time to adopt all the documents that we have adopted”, he said. President Nazarbayev emphasized that the presidents of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus are intent on transforming the Customs Union and the ensuing Single Economic Space into a solid alliance that would attract other nations. “This organization rests on equal rights (…) every issue is resolved through concerted decisions. There will be no impairment of any member state’s sovereignty. It was our voluntary decision to hand over our economic sovereignty to a supranational body”, Head of State said. “I am confident the EU and other integrations will have a keen interest in the Eurasian Economic Union (…)”, President Nazarbayev said, adding that the three presidents had agreed not to arrange new integrations until the Single Economic Space was successfully launched.