The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) lacks the freedoms promised, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said during Thursday’s meeting with Mikhail Myasnikovich, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission.
“Currently, there hardly any freedoms that we once declared. Or, to put it mildly, they are yet to be fully implemented. I am speaking about the free movement of goods, services, labour and capital, which is the foundation of our union. We still lack them. You know why? Due to individual states’ why-bother attitude based on sort of indifference. Others view themselves in another union, just fiddling around in the EAEU and picking some right moment to withdraw from it,” Lukashenka said.
According to him, there are 14 exceptions, 37 restrictions and 15 barriers in the EAEU.
“They should have been lifted long time ago. If this were not the case, what is the point of this union. What is keeping us in the union if there are obstacles, barriers and exceptions?” Lukashenka wondered.
The head of state complained that Belarus was experiencing ‘coercion and monopoly abuse’ within the EAEU, but he failed to specify which partners was to blame for that. In light of the recent deterioration of Belarus-Russia relations, one can assume that Lukashenka was referring to the Kremlin.
“We do not have a common manufacturing and agricultural policy. It is non-existent. We started dilly-dallying, stopping short of bashing faces instead of coming to terms and embarking on the work and thus getting united and becoming an example to follow for those who have not joined our union yet. Who will want to be part of this union if even we cannot come to grips with it – the three states that founded it and Kyrgyzstan and Armenia that joined later,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes him.
