18-19.12.2014, the Final Gaidar Readings-2014 dedicated to the treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union were held.
On December 18-19, 2014, the Final Gaidar Readings-2014 dedicated to the treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union which becomes effective from January1, 2015 were held.
The sponsors of the Readings were the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, the RANEPA, the Yegor Gaidar Fund and the European Organization of Public Law.
The topic of the above Gaidar Readings was selected in the context of the forthcoming entry into force of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union signed in Astana on May 29, 2014 and establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union as an independent international entity. The treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union is a new stage in the integration process: it suggests higher integration of member-states of the Union by the key lines, expansion of cooperation and institutionalization of mechanisms of the Union's operations, procedures and bodies.
The Conference was opened by Sergei Prikhodko, Executive Director of the Gaidar Institute. On behalf of the sponsors of the Gaidar Readings, welcome address to the participants was delivered by Vladimir Mau, Rector of the RANEPA and Valery Smirnov, Permanent Representative at the European Organization of Public Law.
In his report, Andrei Slepnev, Member of the Trade Collegium (Minister) of the Eurasian Economic Commission stressed that growth rates of mutual trade of three member-states of the Customs Union exceeded 2-3 times over the respective foreign trade index. At the same time, Andrei Slepnev paid a particular attention to import substitution as a response to challenges the economies of member states currently faced. According to Andrei Slepnev, in the field of import substitution a correct coordinated policy of all the member-states of the Eurasian Economic Union, which policy is infeasible without proper regulation of export is required.
Timur Suleimenov, Member of the Commission on Economy and Financial Policy (Minister) of the Eurasian Economic Commission touched upon the importance of harmonization of the market of services within the frameworks of the Eurasian Economic Union. It is to be noted that if as regards harmonization of the flow of goods progress was made long ago, there has been none in harmonization of the flow of services. At present, the following three groups of services have been determined: 1) services which from January 1, 2015 start functioning in the common market regime; 2) services which are included in the common market regime, but upon the expiry of a certain transition period and 3) exemptions and limitations. Т. Suleimenov said that the highly overregulated financial market would start functioning in 2025; its operations would be supervised by a special supranational authority.
Tatyana Golendeyeva, State Secretary and Deputy Head of the Federal Customs Service of Russia reminded that the integration of countries which was currently overgrowing into the Eurasian Economic Union started from the Customs Union of three countries: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Tatyana Golendeyeva stressed the importance of liberalization of customs administration, reduction of customs clearance and harmonization of customs technologies.
Dmitri Demidenko, Deputy Head of the Department of Organization of Work with Foreign Nationals of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation elaborated on modern regulation of the immigration process in Russia and paid a particular attention to mechanisms of prevention of illegal immigration. Dmitri Demidenko said that according to the data of the UN in the 1990–2014 period the number of migrants in the world doubled, increasing by 3.6m persons a year. In 2014, the number of people who came to Russia amounted to 16.8m.
The morning plenary session of the Conference was completed with a report delivered by Spiridon Flogaitis, Director of the European Organization of Public Law in which he elaborated on the activities of the international entity he was in charge of.
The afternoon session of the Conference was opened by Leonid Lozbenko, Head of the Committee of Foreign Economic Activities and Customs of the Opora Rossii, All-Russian Non-Profit Organization of Small and Mid-Sized Business. In his report, Leonid Lozbenko spoke about the impact of the external economy on development of small and mid-sized businesses and what was to be done to make that impact a favorable one.
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Grigory Tomchin, President of the Fund for Support of Legislative Initiatives is sure that Russia should become a country which is ideal for transit of goods. According to Gribory Tomchin, to achieve that it is necessary to reform local government, introduce a single real property item and forbid the state to build roads on its funds (only on a basis of a concession or paid roads).
Galina Balandina, Senior Researcher of the RANEPA said that on January 1, 2015, on the day when the treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was to come into effect, nobody would notice anything because three different legal cultures, different modes of protection of own interests and other were in place. At the same time, the proposals which the Federal Customs Service of Russia received at present from the business were aimed at reducing customs clearance of goods and making it faster and less expensive. The above proposals included, among other things, the following: in the customs clearance technology remove goods as subject of pledge; separate issuing and settlement of payments; displace the customs and tax control; introduce customs control over a certain period of time and not in respect of a specific delivery and other.
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In his report, Andrei Spartak, Director of the All-Russian Market Situation Research Institute identified challenges before the Eurasian integration, namely, problems related to the crisis over Ukraine (sanctions, counter-sanctions and renewal of the customs control with Belarus); the situation on the global oil market (for Russia and Kazakhstan); changes in the global political configuration; a possibility of "hard landing" of the Chinese economy and a possible recession of the West European economy. According to A. Spartak, the integration development model should be a dual track one: on the one side it is important to develop further cooperation with China, while on the other side, to promote the dialogue between the two blocks: the West European block and the Eurasian one.
Presentation to the Report >>>
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The 2nd day of the Readings was held at the RANEPA in the format of workshops on the following topics: "The New Customs Legislation of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Ways of Implementation", "Industrial and Trade Policy as Measure of Economic Security" and "The European Economic Union: International and Legal Issues of Formation and Development".