Belarusian parliament to hold EEU Treaty ratification hearing on Thursday
MINSK. Oct 7 (Interfax) - Both chambers of the Belarusian parliament will consider a draft law ratifying the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) Treaty on October 9.
"Reportedly, an instrument of the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty ratification may be considered at the October 9 meeting," a source in the Belarusian National Assembly's House of Representatives told Interfax.
A source in the upper chamber, the Council of the Republic, said the upper chamber members would convene on October 9 and the ratification of the EEU Treaty would top their agenda. "This draft law will be considered if the lower chamber of the parliament decides to ratify it," the source said.
It added that the Council of the Republic Presidium held a meeting dedicated to main provisions of the EEU Treaty on Monday. Belarusian Representative to the Eurasian Economic Commission Council Sergei Rumas presented information regarding the EEU Treaty ratification.
"Rumas stressed that the treaty would enable Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan to reach a drastically new level of integration, which would be more significant and multifaceted than that in the Customs Union," the source said.
Earlier reports said that Belarusian deputies had expressed their extreme concern about a number of the EEU Treaty provisions and the pending Russian tax maneuver in the oil sector. They said that tax adjustments prepared by Russia would result in losses from the national budget and said that the expected losses did not allow the parliament to begin consideration of the 2015 draft budget law.
The parliamentarians said they deemed it inexpedient to consider ratification of the EEU Treaty until after Russia and Belarus had settled the problem of compensation for the expected Belarusian losses.
In the opinion of Belarus, it would be possible to compensate for the shortfall in budget income with Russia's decision not to levy any duties on petroleum products made of Russian crude in 2015-2017.
It was also said that the Belarus-Russia High-Level Group would meet in Minsk on October 9 to discuss petroleum product duties amongst other issues if the problem was not resolved by then.
