APR News

At the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on October 27, 2016 in Minsk, a number of issues aimed at further deepening of integration processes in the Eurasian Economic Union were addressed. In particular, the draft of the new Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union. Issues in the areas of customs cooperation, trade, as well as issues of international activities of the Eurasian Economic Commission were discussed.

On October 27, 2016 in Minsk the Member of the Board - Minister in charge of Integration and macroeconomics of the EEC Tatyana Valovaya took part in the conference "Common integration processes: towards common vision through cross-border strategy", organized by the expert initiative “Minsk dialogue” with the support of Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany) and Austro-French Center of reconciliation in Europe (Austria-France).
The EEC Minister spoke at the opening ceremony, together with the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Evgeny Shestakov, Deputy Secretary General of the Central European initiative Margot Klestil-Löffler, head of the EU delegation in the Republic of Belarus Andrea Victorin, and others.
The key part of the forum was the discussion on collaboration of integration associations in Europe, primarily the European Union and Eurasian Economic Union.
In her speech, Tatyana Valovaya noted that the dialogue in the format of "Union-Union" is logical and objectively long awaited, and said that in the absence of direct contact between the EAEU and the EU both Eurasian and European businesses suffer. "The volume of trade between the EC and the EAEU decreased almost twice, if we compare the figures for the first seven months of 2016 and 2013 for the similar period," stressed the EEC Minister.
Press-release at the official Eurasian Economic Commission web-site

A roundtable "Prospects of forming common markets of energy resources of the Eurasian Economic Union" was organized in Moscow within the framework of the Eurasian Week Forum & Expo 2016 on October 27, 2016. Acting Deputy Director of the Energy Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergey Kolobanov was a moderator of the roundtable.
The event was attended by leaders and representatives of ministries and departments of the Union States in the field of energy, energy companies, as well as infrastructure, scientific and public organizations.

On October 26, 2016 in Skolkovo Innovation Centre in the framework of the Moscow International Forum for Innovative Development "Open Innovations" and the Eurasian Week Forum & Expo, a roundtable "Problems of business access to financial services in the space of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)" was organized by the Department of financial policy of the EEC. The moderator of the roundtable was the Director of the financial policy Department of Eurasian Economic Commission, Tigran Davtyan, and the co-moderator was the President of the Association of Russian banks Garegin Tosunyan.
In his speech Tigran Davtyan told about the main directions of the development of the common financial market of the EAEU and key tools for the implementation of financial policies in the Union.
"Among the most important vectors for the development of the common financial market is the creation of favourable conditions for the establishment and implementation of activities on the financial markets of EAEU, free movement of capital within the Union (removal of barriers), stimulation of the development of competition, growth of investment attractiveness of the EAEU States, reducing administrative barriers and costs," said Tigran Davtyan.
The Eurasian Economic Commission rolled out activities on convergence of financial and monetary legislation of the EAEU Member States, creation of the infrastructure of the common financial market and institutional framework in order to ensure the activities of the Union in the field of financial markets, development of administrative cooperation within the interaction of national regulators on issues of regulation, development and supervision in financial sectors.
Among the main issues discussed at the event were problems and prospects of national regulation of the financial markets of the EAEU Member States, development prospects for the banking and insurance sector, securities market, the influence of international requirements on national financial markets, the role of rating agencies in the investment attractiveness of the Union financial markets, the establishment of the international financial center in Moscow and Astana, formation of the common exchange space in the EAEU.
The discussion was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Bank, the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Stock Exchange, EXIAR, the Eurasian Development Bank and the CIS Interstate Bank.
Press-release at the official Eurasian Economic Commission web-site

On October 26, 2016 in Oslo (Norway), the Director of the Integration Development Department Sergey Shukhno took part in the fifth Norwegian-Russian business forum conducted under the auspices of the Confederation of Norwegian industry. The EEC representative made a key presentation on the current status and prospects of development of the Eurasian Economic integration.
Sergey Shukhno noted peculiarities of functioning of the Eurasian Economic Union in connection with the transfer of part of the competences of the Member States to the supranational level. He spoke about perspectives of development of the Eurasian Economic integration for the next ten years, as well as on the international activities of the Union.

Acting Deputy Director of the Internal Markets Functioning Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergey Savostyan participated in the conference "The Eurasian Economic Union: legal regulation of international customs cooperation" held in Moscow on October 26, 2016. He made a report on overcoming barriers to trade within the Eurasian Economic Union.
The event was attended by representatives of the Court of the Union, state bodies of the Russian Federation and the business community.

Within the framework of the Eurasian Week Forum & Expo in Skolkovo Innovation Centre, a discussion session on "The EAEU as a player in the market of high technologies: potential and real possibilities of integration” was held.
The Member of the Board - Minister in charge of Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission Veronika Nikishina, Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore Koh Poh Koon, Park Ro-byug, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea in the Russian Federation, head of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Gregory Ivliev, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Development Bank Dmitry Pankin spoke at the event.
Addressing the participants of the discussion session, the EEC Trade Minister Veronika Nikishina said that there is a great potential in the EAEU for the development of the innovative economy. The EEC Minister said, "We expect that innovation will be the driver of our Union’s economy development and will give a serious value added to the economic growth."
According to Veronika Nikishina, the Union countries carried out consistent work on the development of modern industries, including through the adoption of national policies for the development of nanotechnologies. This area is regarded by the parties as an economic sector, which can provide increased competitiveness of other industries.
"A good example is the metallurgy, which belongs to priority sectors of the EAEU economies. The Union countries are aimed at creating competitive industries, modernization of existing enterprises of the industry in order to reduce resource and energy consumption. Particular attention is paid to the development of innovation for technologies of extraction and complex processing of raw materials, development of new products and the active involvement of the scientific and technical potential of the industry in innovation processes," said the EEC Minister during the discussion session.
The EEC Minister also stressed that transition to the innovative economy should contribute to the development of foreign trade of the EAEU Member States, which was one of the key tasks of the Union trade policies.

The Eurasian Economic Commission held a meeting between the Member of the Board - Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the EEC Tatiana Valovaya with the Deputy Director of the IMF for Middle East and Central Asia Juha Kähkönen and the head of the Permanent Mission of the IMF in Russia Gabriel di Bella.

Within the framework of the Eurasian Week Forum & Expo, the Member of the Board - Minister in charge of Trade of the EEC Veronika Nikishina and the Minister of Trade and Industry of the Republic of Singapore Koh Poh Koon signed a statement about the beginning of work of the joint research group on the feasibility of an agreement on free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and Singapore.
During the joint work, the experts will analyse peculiarities of foreign trade regulation of both parties, conditions for increasing the level of competitiveness of the products from the EAEU and Singapore in mutual markets, simulate the effects of free trade agreements on the economy of the EAEU Member States. After this, the parties plan to draw up proposals for the new level of trade and economic relations between Singapore and the Union countries to assess the feasibility of a free trade agreement.

On October 27, 2016 at the conference "Digital agenda in the Eurasian Economic Union", which took place in the framework of the annual Open Innovations Forum, the draft strategy on formation and development of the EAEU digital space until 2025 was agreed. Moreover, the declaration on the need for accelerated development of the digital space of the Union was approved.