25 October 2013 | 14:36

Nazarbayev proposes liquidating EurAsEC, but Putin opposes

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President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has proposed to dissolve EurAsEC because "two overlapping organizations with similar rules are not needed", but Russian President Vladminir Putin opposed the idea of immediate dissolution, Tengrinews reports citing RIA Novosti. He believes that immediate liquidation of EurAsEC would undermine the Customs Union's legal framework and harm the interests of the members of EurAsEC that are not part of the Customs Union: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. "We should not loose the legal framework that the Customs Union is partly based on," he said about EurAsEC at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic council in Minsk today. "We cannot just liquidate it without undermining the legal foundation of the Customs Union. We should do something about it. We should dwell on it and come up with a solution that would relieve us from the excessive structures," he said. Putin supported Nazarbayev's proposal to "take a part of the legal framework, re-sign it and include it into the framework of the Customs Union itself". President Nazarbayev offered the dissolution option because EurAsEC largely duplicates the Eurasian Economic Union that is being created on the basis of the CU and will render EurAsEC obsolete once launched in 2015. Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are expected to become the first members of the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Commission is the regulatory agency for the Eurasian Economic Community Common Economic Space and the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. "We don't need this organization, we should close it," he said about the EurAsEC at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic council in Minsk today. But he called to remember about the none-CU members of the EurAsEC - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - and offer them an observer status in the Customs Union. Putin agreed saying "we could invite them to be observers so that they can be around, together with us, and can understand what is going on".

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has proposed to dissolve EurAsEC because "two overlapping organizations with similar rules are not needed", but Russian President Vladminir Putin opposed the idea of immediate dissolution, Tengrinews reports citing RIA Novosti. He believes that immediate liquidation of EurAsEC would undermine the Customs Union's legal framework and harm the interests of the members of EurAsEC that are not part of the Customs Union: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. "We should not loose the legal framework that the Customs Union is partly based on," he said about EurAsEC at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic council in Minsk today. "We cannot just liquidate it without undermining the legal foundation of the Customs Union. We should do something about it. We should dwell on it and come up with a solution that would relieve us from the excessive structures," he said. Putin supported Nazarbayev's proposal to "take a part of the legal framework, re-sign it and include it into the framework of the Customs Union itself". President Nazarbayev offered the dissolution option because EurAsEC largely duplicates the Eurasian Economic Union that is being created on the basis of the CU and will render EurAsEC obsolete once launched in 2015. Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are expected to become the first members of the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Commission is the regulatory agency for the Eurasian Economic Community Common Economic Space and the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. "We don't need this organization, we should close it," he said about the EurAsEC at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic council in Minsk today. But he called to remember about the none-CU members of the EurAsEC - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - and offer them an observer status in the Customs Union. Putin agreed saying "we could invite them to be observers so that they can be around, together with us, and can understand what is going on".

Russia Common Economic Space Customs Union EurAsEC Kazakh Kazakhstan Nazarbayev news president Putin CIS