EDB holds an international discussion on the problems of and prospects for cooperation between the EU and the EEU
Almaty, 21 November 2014. What are the prospects for cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in the current context? How to distinguish political ambitions and their objective interests? When and how can the idea of an agreement on economic integration between these two unions be fulfilled? These issues were discussed by experts from various EU and EEU bodies, who took part in the third high-level roundtable on Thursday and Friday in Vienna.
The discussion was arranged in the framework of the international project Challenges and Opportunities of Economic Integration within a Wider European and Eurasian Space co-organised by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC).
“The project seeks to create an independent discussion platform, which is much needed in the current situation, and to prepare a series of applied research projects on economic cooperation on the continent, “from Lisbon to Vladivostok” and “from Lisbon to Shanghai,” says Vladimir Yasinsky, Member of the Management Board and Managing Director for Research at EDB.
The participants in the roundtable discussed the existing non-tariff trade regulations in the EU and the EEU and the possibilities for their mutual gradual alleviation. The second day was about technical regulations. Special attention was paid to the discussion of a major project undertaken by EDB and the EEC to analyse the economic effects of the mutual lifting of non-tariff barriers in the EEU.
“Although the very idea of the agreement on economic integration between the EU and the EEU seems strange at the moment, the foundation for mutual interest is objectively significant. This includes territorial proximity, security issues, considerable trade flows, the potential for investment ties and infrastructural development, and the links between EU and EEU citizens. A crisis in relationships is the time when a new basis should be laid,” Evgeny Vinokurov, Director of the EDB Centre for Integration Studies, believes.
The current roundtable is the third out of the planned nine fora on cooperation between the EU and the EEU in the area of trade and investment, economic integration, education and research, transport infrastructure development and a common electricity market, which will take place in
Additional Information
Eurasian Development Bank is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth and the expansion of mutual trade and other economic ties in its member states. The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan. Read more at https://www.eabr.org.