MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova - The agreement on the termination of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) will be signed on October 10 in Minsk at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Community, EurAsEC Secretary General Tair Mansurov told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
“The decision has been made long ago that we will be deciding on the issues of future potential and the EurAsEC will terminate its activities,” Mansurov told RIA Novosti, responding to a question on the organization’s dissolution.
According to the Kremlin press service’s statement published Tuesday, the agreement will be signed by the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and will come into force on January 1, 2015. The heads of states will also summarize the results of the EurAsEC’s work.
“In the 14 years of its existence, this organization has made a significant contribution to the development of Eurasian integration, assisted in the creation of the Customs Union, the Common Economic Space of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and to bringing integration to a new level through the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union,” the Kremlin said in a press release.
Speaking about the upcoming meeting in Minsk, Mansurov noted that as a high-level meeting, it will focus on a wide range of issues concerning the organization. But the focus is expected to be on how to preserve the achievements of the EurAsEC.
“There will be made decisions about how to preserve everything that has been achieved,” Mansurov said at a press conference Tuesday. “Has the security improved? Healthcare, education, culture, social sphere? People are feeling that and all these should be preserved.”
From January 1, 2015, the EurAsEC will be replaced by the Eurasian Economic Union.
The agreement, representing a pact by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to further integrate following their partnership in the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, was signed by all three presidents in May. The signing of the Eurasian Economic Union agreement brings together 170 million people onto a common market, making it a new powerful center for economic development.
The agreement seeks to launch the development of domestic trade, economic and cooperative ties, increase competitiveness of national production and strengthen the role of the union’s countries in the global economic system.
The republics of Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have also expressed interest in joining the organization.
