News

17 Apr 2025 Commission urges oil and gas mechanical engineers to use mechanism for financing industrial cooperation projects The Eurasian Economic Commission and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs held a joint round table "On Developing Cooperation in the Production of Oil and Gas Equipment in the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union" on the sidelines of the Eurasian Oil and Gas Forum. The discussion covered relevant industry matters, including the elimination of barriers to cooperation between EAEU enterprises. Vitaly Vovk, Deputy Director of the EEC Industrial Policy Department, noted that in accordance with the Main Directions of Industrial Cooperation within the EAEU until 2030, oil and gas machine building is one of the priority sectors of cooperation between the Union countries. In view of the successful launch of the new instrument for financing industrial cooperation projects, the Commission's representative proposed that businesses should intensify building cooperation ties between three or more enterprises of the Member States. "The Commission has developed a draft recommendation to the EEC Board, which directs the Union countries to take into account the possibilities of using the new mechanism for financing industrial cooperation in implementing projects in the field of oil and gas equipment production," summarized Vitaly Vovk.

17 Apr 2025 Eldar Alisherov and Deputy Prime Minister of Republic of Armenia Mher Grigoryan discussed integration and macroeconomic issues Eldar Alisherov, Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission, held a working meeting with Mher Grigoryan, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, in Yerevan. "Armenia has remained one of economic growth leaders within the EAEU in the last three years," Eldar Alisherov emphasized. "For example, the country's economy grew by 5.9% in 2024. Economic activity remains high: in February 2025, its index was 4.1%. Positive trends are demonstrated by the labor market: there is an increase in salaries and employment, while unemployment has significantly decreased." The two sides exchanged views on the prospects for developing the Eurasian integration. Special attention was paid to preparing a plan for implementing the 2030 Declaration. The meeting noted the importance of filling it with substantive measures for the development of the Eurasian Economic Union.

17 Apr 2025 Ruslan Davydov and Chairman of Belarusian State Customs Committee Vladimir Orlovsky discussed cooperation issues Ruslan Davydov, Minister in charge of Customs Cooperation of the Eurasian Economic Commission, met with Vladimir Orlovsky, Chairman of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus, in Minsk. The two sides discussed the issues of interaction between the EEC and the State Customs Committee of Belarus concerning the implementation of common processes in the customs sector, delivering on the instructions of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on controlling the customs value of imported goods and implementing the agreement on the use of electronic navigation seals. In particular, the initiatives of the State Customs Committee of Belarus for clarifying a number of provisions of the Eurasian Economic Union law regulating the customs transit procedure were considered. In addition, the meeting participants drew attention to the need to use the world's best practices in the operations of border crossing points and their digitalization, which is one of the key elements in increasing their throughput capacity and contributes to the development of the EAEU transit potential. During his visit, Ruslan Davydov looked at the functioning of the Minsk free economic zone, the residents of which actively use Union exemptions for the free customs zone procedure. The main sectors where Minsk FEZ enterprises operate are machine building and metalworking, automotive industry, woodworking, production of construction materials, electronics, printing and packaging.

17 Apr 2025 Transport integration discussed by specialized EEC Advisory Committee Key issues of transport development in the EAEU were considered during the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Transport and Infrastructure, which was held on April 17 under the chairmanship of Arzybek Kozhoshev, the EEC Minister in charge of Energy and Infrastructure. The two sides agreed to expand the road map for implementing the transport policy of the EAEU countries for 2024-2026 with additional measures to attract and utilize the human resources potential of the transport industry. The meeting approved the information on the progress of the EAEU countries in implementing the Phased Liberalization Program for carriers registered in the territory of one of the EAEU countries and engaged in road freight transportation between points located in another the EAEU country. A decision was made to establish a subcommittee on smart transport systems under the Advisory Committee on Transport and Infrastructure to implement the Concept on Interoperability of Smart Transport Systems. The two sides discussed measures to implement the Eurasian Economic Path Declaration on Further Development of Economic Processes in the EAEU until 2030 and for the period until 2045, over which they still have differences. It was also decided to work toward preparing a pool of infrastructure projects in the Five countries, which in the future could be implemented together with third countries. In addition, information on measures to develop certain sections of Eurasian transport routes, identify and eliminate bottlenecks, including through the introduction of digital solutions and services of the EAEU digital transport corridors ecosystem was considered. Summing up the meeting, the two sides discussed concepts for the panel session "Introduction of Digital Solutions in EAEU Transport: Paperless Technologies, Automated and Unmanned Vehicles" and the panel session "Sustainable Transport in the Greater Eurasia Region: Mobility, Multimodality and Digitalization" to be held as part of the Eurasian Economic Forum.

16 Apr 2025 Obstacle related to restricted movement of EAEU Member States' citizens across Russian-Belarusian border removed On January 11, 2025, the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Belarus on mutual recognition of visas and on other issues related to the entry of foreign citizens and stateless persons into the territories of the States parties to the Treaty on the Establishment of the Union State dated June 19, 2020 entered into force. The Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus informed the Eurasian Economic Commission that citizens of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic currently have the practical possibility of entering the Russian Federation from the Republic of Belarus and leaving the Russian Federation for the Republic of Belarus via the international rail and air routes in use, as well as the roadways listed in the annex to the Agreement (six areas). Previously, citizens of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic could enter the Russian Federation from the Republic of Belarus and leave the Russian Federation for the Republic of Belarus only by air. Given the geographical proximity of the two countries it was costly and not always convenient. With the Agreement in force, citizens of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic can cross the Belarusian-Russian border both by road and rail transport. On April 15, 2025, the Board of the Commission considered removing the said obstacle. "Thanks to the joint work of the EAEU Member States and the Commission, citizens of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic have the possibility to move freely across the Russian-Belarusian border. Systemic work to remove obstacles in the EAEU internal market is ongoing and will continue. Undoubtedly, this circumstance will have a positive impact on implementing the freedom of movement of persons and labor resources between our countries, as well as will contribute to the development of domestic tourism in the Union," mentioned Varos Simonyan, EEC Minister in charge of Internal Markets, Informatization, Information and Communication Technologies.

16 Apr 2025 Valentin Tataritsky: "Goods for children and teenagers must be the safest ones" Valentin Tataritsky, Minister in charge of Technical Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission, proposed to improve the safety of products for children and teenagers at the Congress of Children's Goods Industry in Moscow. He is convinced that such goods must be the safest on the market of the Eurasian Economic Union countries. At the Congress, representatives of business and expert community, government agencies and international organizations exchanged opinions on this topic and shared their work experience. Valentin Tataritsky told how the Commission jointly with the Member States establishes and improves the relevant regulatory framework within the EAEU. In the Union documents, he said, the use of modern technologies by manufacturers in making toys, clothing, footwear and other children's and teenage goods should be reflected more widely. At the same time, safety must be paramount. Every child dreams of an interesting, beautiful toy. But, so that such gifts do not disappoint children and parents, let alone cause harm to health, when buying a product, a number of characteristics should be taken into account. In particular, it is the material, shape, odor, which must comply with the established safety requirements and meet certain age criteria. Even the color matters: it should be as close to natural as possible, so it does not disrupt the child's idea of the real world and is not frightening. All necessary requirements are contained in the technical regulation of the Union "On Safety of Toys". Also, the following EAEU technical regulations are in force: "On Safety of Products Intended for Children and Teenagers", "On Safety of Amusement Rides", "On Safety of Equipment for Children's Playgrounds", etc., the requirements of which are fundamental.    The EEC Minister emphasized the need for timely and science-based adjustment of the relevant technical regulations of the Union in accordance with "risks to children's mental health and cognitive development." "The requirements of technical regulations are of a technical nature, which gives us the possibility to assess (test or measure) them in a fairly obvious way," noted the EEC Minister. "At the same time, children's products are of great importance for the intellectual, moral and aesthetic development of children. But there are no requirements in the regulations yet that can address that." Valentin Tataritsky reported on the study of various practices in terms of establishing requirements for children's products, including digital toys and toys with artificial intelligence, excluding negative impact on the children's mind. He dwelt in detail on the example of the European Union "tightening the regulations for children's products" and called on all those interested to evaluate this experience more closely with a view to its possible use in the EAEU. "The Commission is interested in similar activities taking place in our Union. All the more so because the EAEU law has the capacity for timely and prompt adjustment of technical requirements. The new edition of the Procedure for developing technical regulations of the Union and amending them, adopted this year, will ensure accelerated adjustment of these documents and the Unified Sanitary and Epidemiological Requirements based on the R&D results," summarized Valentin Tataritsky.

11 Apr 2025 EEC held seminar on developing cooperation on technical regulation with Iran The Eurasian Economic Commission held a seminar under the chairmanship of Andrey Slepnev, EEC Minister in charge of Trade, and Valentin Tataritsky, EEC Minister in charge Technical Regulation, on the prospects of cooperation with Iran in the field of technical regulation, turnover of medicines and medical products. The meeting was held ahead of the enactment of the Free Trade Agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and the Islamic Republic of Iran on May 15 this year. The seminar was attended by representatives of government agencies, business associations and companies of the EAEU countries interested in developing cooperation with Iranian partners and entering the Iranian market. "The Iranian party expressed interest in the convergence of regulatory approaches to clinical trials and registration of pharmaceutical products. For our part, we see the interest of the business community in the Iranian party eliminating technical barriers to the access of wheeled vehicles, as well as medical equipment," mentioned Andrey Slepnev. According to him, the improved regulatory part of the Agreement regarding technical barriers to trade fully complies with the rules of the World Trade Organization, which is especially important given that Iran is not a member of this international organization. "The most practice-oriented mechanism for settling the problems of product access to the Iranian market for our entities appears to be the working group on technical barriers to trade. The Agreement provides for the establishment of such a thematic group. The working group can consider specific export cases of our organizations related to technical requirements in Iran or conformity assessment procedures and try to reach some selective agreements," noted Valentin Tataritsky. He proposed that the full range of possibilities available to address technical barriers to trade should be considered, including bilateral agreements of the Union States with Iran. The most promising areas of interaction with Iranian partners in the field of technical regulation are planned to be included in the draft Joint Action Plan (Road Map) on trade and economic cooperation between the EAEU, its Member States and Iran, which is currently under development and is aimed at implementing the provisions of the Agreement.

11 Apr 2025 EEC intensifies use of financial support mechanism in railway mechanical engineering A delegation of the Eurasian Economic Commission headed by Goar Barseghyan, Minister in charge of Industry and Agriculture, visited Tver Region to look into the operations at the production sites of the Key Systems and Components Group of Companies (KSC GC). This holding is one of the largest Russian manufacturers of systems and components for rail rolling stock. During the visit to the KSC GC industrial technopark and the holding's enterprises, the parties discussed the use of the financial support mechanism for industrial cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union for the implementation of the Moscow – St. Petersburg high-speed railroad project. "We expect that the financial support mechanism will be successfully used by the holding for modernization and expanding its production capacity, as well as to create new cooperation chains with enterprises of the EAEU countries. We can create new cooperation chains, which will strengthen the positions not only of KSC, but also of the whole Eurasian industry," Goar Barseghyan pointed out. KSC GC unites more than 20 enterprises in ten regions of the Russian Federation, employing over 16,000 people. The KSC clients are more than 200 companies in Russia and Europe.

News

Useful links of the EAEU