2. Cooperation and integration mechanisms in EAEU

2. Cooperation and integration mechanisms in EAEU

Two distinctions between LAC and EAEU are the smaller number of EAEU countries and the fact that through EAEU these countries have an automatic platform of cooperation. Furthermore, due to its size, the Russian Federation is a leading country amongst EAEU member States with a more developed international network of cooperation. (a) Cooperation within EAEU Unlike the LAC region, EAEU member States, united in a single association, are embedded into integration processes to an equitable extent. The Union State of Belarus and the Russian Federation is the only example of bilateral rather than multilateral integration ties within EAEU. Whereas the Union State appeared early in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 29 May 2014 and entered into force on 1 January 2015. Initially concluded by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, EAEU was joined by Armenia and Kyrgyzstan on 2 January 2015 and 7 August 2015 respectively. Therefore, whereas internal cooperation in LAC is organised in the form of membership in various initiatives and organizations, its forms in EAEU can be rather inferred from intra-EAEU projects. As an international organization of regional economic integration, EAEU has inherited the achievements of previous integration stages: The Customs’ Union (2009-2011), the single market (Common Economic Space, 2012-2014) and the Economic Union (since 2015). While EAEU originally focused on purely economic targets, the member States have proceeded much further than the simplification of trade procedures. EAEU goals include ambitious ones, such as improving the quality of life of all population groups through the creation of a vast common market, production diversification, efficiency improvement and employing the full economic potential of the member States. By 2020, common markets for goods and over fifty types of services have been established. To ensure their smooth functioning, trade barriers are being identified and abolished and 48 EAEU technical regulations have already been established to address sensitive issues regarding technical barriers to trade. A common labour market and freedom of movement make it possible for the entire EAEU workforce to find employment in any of the member States without additional requirements or diploma recognition procedures. Common capital markets, encompassing banking, insurance, brokerage and other types of financial services, are being established. The member States are striving to create common markets for energy, gas and oil products. To simplify the procedures of operating in common markets, EAEU is undergoing the digitalization, a process which implies, among others, the digital traceability of goods, the admittance of electronic shipment documents and digital transport corridors. Certain spheres of EAEU economies cannot be transferred to supranational governance and member States pursue coordinated, rather than common, policy. Coordinated macroeconomic policy aims at achieving balanced economic development and stipulates, inter alia, that in elaborating macroeconomic policy, member States are guided by established quantitative stability criteria, as well as the Main Directions of EAEU development. Coordinated agricultural policy intends to ensure that EAEU resource potential is leveraged, while coordinated transport policy establishes a priority of creating a common transport services market. To enable EAEU fully to explore all its multi-dimensional development prospects, the member States have created an extensive institutional structure, including the Eurasian

Economic Commission (EEC), the supranational permanent regulatory body, and the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union, which is in charge of dispute resolution and the interpretation of EAEU legal order. Not legally connected to EAEU, the development bank operating projects in Eurasia is the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). The members of the EDB comprise all EAEU member States and Tajikistan. EDB is an international organization aimed at financing projects with high integration potential that are assumed to be capable of providing stimuli to industrial development, public-private partnership or spur the participating countries’ economic development. Importantly, EDB investment projects shortlisting considers it’s the compliance with high environmental criteria. EAEU observer States can be present for all meetings of the Union’s bodies and there are no restrictions on which countries are qualified to request such status. In 2018, the Republic of Moldova became the first EAEU observer state, while Uzbekistan and Cuba are currently undergoing the procedure for acquiring observer status. (b) EAEU external cooperation Despite its relatively recent founding, EAEU has been able to successfully establish external relations with national governments, as well as regional integration associations and other international organizations. EAEU member States’ global membership and partnerships generally coincide and do not differ from one country to the other. The recent trend towards the erosion of the multilateral trade system increases the importance of preventing and tackling emerging threats and challenges under preferential trade agreements, which is why international cooperation in trade is a matter of the utmost importance for EAEU. Most external EAEU partnerships either take the form of a memorandum of understanding or a trade agreement. (i) Memoranda of understanding Memoranda of understanding or cooperation act as a first step towards establishing platforms for exchanging opinions and best practices, ensuring permanent cooperation mechanisms with a prospect of more profound forms of cooperation, including free trade agreements. Among the memoranda of understanding concluded by EAEU and EEC, those with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and with the permanent committee of the Union State of Belarus and the Russian Federation constitute a major priority. Whereas the Union State might be considered an internal integration association within EAEU, all member States are also founding parties to CIS. The nations united under CIS are historically and culturally proximate to EAEU, their goods and services markets often become a target of EAEU producers and investors and there are ample migration flows between EAEU and other CIS States, including labour migration. Hence, the areas of cooperation are broad and include technical regulation, labour migration, intellectual property rights, transport and joint value chains. Concerning geographically distant partners, EEC has signed memoranda of cooperation with governments of more than a dozen of countries, including LAC States, such as Chile, Cuba and Peru. The preparedness for cooperation has been stated in corresponding memoranda with numerous integration associations and international economic organizations, including MERCOSUR, CAN, SELA and the Pacific Alliance in the LAC region, as well as ASEAN and the African Union. Relations with other organizations, such as APEC, the Western African Community, the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the European Union and the Organization for