The Eurasian Intergovernmental Council Ministerial Summit: Latest Initiatives
EAEU Summit A Regional Precursor to August’s SCO & BRICS Meetings
Following the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council recently held in Sochi, 22 issues were considered and 14 documents were signed. Attendees included the Heads of Government of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, the Heads of Government of the EAEU observer states, being Uzbekistan, and Cuba, together with Prime Ministerial invitees from Azerbaijan; Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Several new initiatives were adopted.
Mutual Academic Recognition
At the meeting of the Intergovernmental Council, an Agreement on mutual recognition of academic degrees in the EAEU States was signed. After the effective date of this Agreement, the EAEU countries’ citizens who have national higher degree certificates will be able to find employment in another Member State without going through a lengthy nostrification procedure, increasing the mobility of highly skilled specialists and contributing to developing scientific cooperation.
EAEU Trade Barrier Removal
The Heads of Government of the EAEU countries were presented with information on the progress in removing barriers in the Union’s internal market. The rate of their removal has doubled owing to increased intra-EAEU mediation. The annual report on the state of competition on transboundary markets and measures taken to restrain violations of the general competition rules in them was approved. During 2022, the EEC considered 26 applications for violations of competition rules, and conducted 12 antitrust investigations, 7 of which were initiated by the Commission.
INSTC & BRI Integration
The Intergovernmental Council approved plans to develop transport infrastructure in the territories of the EAEU States in the East-West (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan) and North-South (Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan) directions, including as part of coupling with the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.
Digitizing Caspian Maritime Administration
The EAEU has agreed to proceed to the second stage of developing electronic document flow at sea checkpoints, a relevant plan for 2023-2025 has been approved. The members of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council reviewed the progress of experiments on using electronic navigation seals. Their results will be summarized later this year.
Digital EAEU
The meeting approved a report on further development of the EAEU integrated information system and the Union’s digital agenda. The EAEU digitalization will be based on the integrated system, which will serve as the basis for implementing digital projects.
EAEU Electricity Common Market
A decision was adopted on the operator of centralized electric power trade on a day-ahead basis in the EAEU common electric power market.
Climate Change Cooperation
The Heads of Government of the EAEU countries instructed to develop approaches to regulating the climate agenda, envisaging the implementation of cooperative climate projects, as well as the promotion of low-carbon development. The relevant approaches are planned to be submitted to the Union’s governing bodies for consideration in H1 of 2024.
Food Safety
The Intergovernmental Council was reported on the progress made on amending the technical regulation on food safety in terms of establishing the maximum residue levels of veterinary medicinal products that can be contained in food products of animal origin. The draft amendments establish the maximum residue level for 75 veterinary medicines in both unprocessed and processed food products of animal origin registered in the Member States, as well as set requirements to control residues of veterinary medicines not named or not registered in the territories of the Union Member States.
Summary
The EAEU countries are bound by many years of friendship and trade, with recent geopolitical dynamics enhancing this. Meanwhile, the EAEU has developed since its formation in 2015, with trade and cooperation integration having a proven track record. Mutual trade is up by almost 90% per cent since its formation, while in late 2022, this reached an all-time high.
Essentially, the EAEU are creating new cooperation links in the industry and digital transformation, forming common markets for gas, oil, and electricity, have plans to create new logistics opportunities and expand cooperation with their international partners.
Not present at the meeting, but highly influential upon it were Iran, India, and China. They will, however, be present at this week’s SCO summit being held in Delhi, and again at the coming BRICS summit later in August in Johannesburg. This lower key EAEU meeting can therefore be considered a regional precursor.
Deepening interaction within the region; and creating stronger links between it and the Global South is especially important now that system-wide global economic issues have been exacerbated.
Consequently, the EAEU is concentrating on three specific priorities: expanding technological capacity and self-reliance, strengthening food security, and developing transport infrastructure.
More, and deeper progress will now doubt emerge both this week from the SCO and later in the month from the BRICS.
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