Eurasian Union Евразийский Союз (Russian)
Political centres		Moscow Minsk Astana Bishkek Dushanbe
Prospective members		Belarus  Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Russia  Tajikistan
Leaders
-	Eurasian Commissioners	Viktor Khristenko a
Establishment
-	Original proposalb	1994
-	Establishment agreed	18 November 2011
-	Eurasian Economic Space (active)	1 January 2012
-	Eurasian Union (planned)	2015
Area
-	Total	20,007,860 km2 7,725,077 sq mi
Population
-	2013 estimate	169,669,400
-	Density	8.36/km2 21.7/sq mi
Time zone		(UTC+3 to +12)
a.	Candidate.
b.	By Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The Eurasian Union (EAU; ⁱ/ˌjʊəreɪʒənˈjuːnjən/) is a proposed political and economic union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan^[1][2][3] and other countries, in particular the post-Soviet states.

The idea, based on the European Union's integration, was brought to attention in October 2011 by the then-Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin,^[3][4] but was first proposed as a concept by the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, during a 1994 speech at a Moscow university.^[5] On 18 November 2011, the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement, setting a target of establishing the Eurasian Union by 2015.^[6] The agreement included the roadmap for the future integration and established the Eurasian Commission (modelled on the European Commission) and the Eurasian Economic Space, which started work on 1 January 2012.^[6][7]

Membership [edit]

The Eurasian Union is said to be the brainchild of Vladimir Putin in the wake of his third term as the President of Russia. If realised, it would comprise a number of states which were part of the former Soviet Union: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.^[8] According to The New York Times, several candidates in Kyrgyzstan's 2011 presidential election have endorsed the concept.^[9] Tajikistan's government said they were considering the possibility of membership.^[2]

At a roundtable in Moscow organised by the ruling United Russia party, Russian political scientist Dmitry Orlov stated that apart from post-Soviet states, membership to the Eurasian Union could be expanded to include other countries that have been historically or culturally close, such as Finland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, China and Mongolia, incorporating them into a common state body where Russian would be the common language of communication and economic cooperation.^[10] According to Vladimir Putin, the Eurasian Union would build upon the "best values of the Soviet Union"; however, critics claim that the drive towards integration aims to restore the Soviet Empire.^[11]

Existing integration projects [edit]

The Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia has already brought partial economic unity between the three states, and the Eurasian Union is said to be a continuation of this customs union. A number of other regional organizations also provide the basis for further integration: the Union State of Russia and Belarus, the Eurasian Economic Community of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, consisting of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan, and the Commonwealth of Independent States comprising most of the post-Soviet countries.

Eurasian Commission [edit]

The agreement signed by presidents Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus established the Eurasian Commission, the supranational governing body of the Eurasian Economic Space, which started work on 1 January 2012.^[7] The Commission is modelled on the European Commission.^[6] The headquarters of the commission will be in Moscow, and the expenses of the infrastructure and accommodation of commission workers will be financed by Russia, while in general the commission budget will be financed by all three countries and dependent on taxation shares received from the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.^[7]

The commission will be headed by the Council, composed of three Vice Premiers from the Government of Belarus, the Government of Kazakhstan and the Government of Russia, and each country will provide three more representatives who will carry out the operational management and oversee the everyday work of the organization.^[6] All these top members will receive the status of federal ministers in their respective countries.^[7] The commission will consist of a number of departments, and its lower rank staff will be composed of 84% Russian officials, 10% Kazakhs, and 6% Belarusians, proportional to the populations of the member states.^[6] A Russian candidate for the place in the commission's Council is Viktor Khristenko, the Minister of Industry and Trade (Khristenko will need to be made Vice Prime Minister in order to take the post). Kazakhstani and Belarusian candidates remain unknown.^[7]

The Eurasian Commission will be eligible to make decisions not only with regard to customs policies, but in such areas as macroeconomics, regulation of economic competition, energy policy, and financial policy. The Commission will also be involved in government procurement and labour migration control.^[7] The agreement on the Commission contains stringent anti-corruption regulations. President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia stated that both the positive and negative experiences of the European Union will be taken into account^[12] and argued that the Eurasian Union will avoid the problems of economic gaps and disparity between countries, such as found in the eurozone, since the member countries have a comparable level of economic development, as well as common history and values.^[13]

See also [edit]

References [edit]