The level of integration in the Union State is still much lower than in the EU – Putin says

December 23. The level of integration in the Union State of Russia and Belarus is still much lower than the level of integration in the European Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference on December 23.

According to him, Russia and Belarus have a lot of “joint work to bring the economies closer and to make them more competitive.” “What are we talking about now? We are talking about synchronizing tax and customs systems as well as legislation,” Putin explained. “This is extremely important in order to ensure a uniform understanding of how we will act together to achieve the highest result. In fact, fiscal and customs policy as well as legislation are the central points.”

The Russian president said that “Aliaksandr Ryhoravič [Lukašenka] and his entire team are not easy negotiators.” In general, he said, the parties “have reached an understanding on the pace and the steps to take.” “This concerns goods and services market access […] transport market, a lot of other issues,” Putin said. “Therefore, I am sure that our citizens would feel it for themselves, in their actual lives. This is not manna from heaven, nothing will fall from the sky, but rather obvious things that ensure our competitiveness.”

“We are building a Union State and the level of our integration is still much lower than the level of integration in the European Union. It is completely incomparable. I’m not talking about the single currency now. Never mind it, this is perhaps a question for the future, if our respective economic agencies reach some kind of agreement on this. First, we need to synchronize our legislation in the economic sphere, including antimonopoly, tax, and customs legislation. We have agreed on all this and now we would start working. I am sure that we would see the results soon,” Putin said.

At a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State on November 4, Aliaksandr Lukašenka and Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving 28 union integration programs (previously known as roadmaps).