Lukashenko suggests postponing EAU formation
MINSK. April 29 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has suggested that the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAU) should be postponed if the parties are not prepared to fully implement the agreements.
"The approaches emerging during the negotiations raise many questions. Innovative proposals on the 10-year deadline for the agreements, by 2025, sound odd, to say the least," Lukashenko said at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Minsk on Tuesday.
"If we are not prepared to adopt these measures now, then this should be acknowledged," the Belarusian president said.
Fears have been expressed about possible problems of a fiscal, financial and economic nature arising in the event of full-scale implementation of the agreements, Lukashenko said. "Aren't we aware of it? But it seems to me that in that case the talk of the Eurasian Economic Union should be postponed by another decade or so, if we are not ready today," he said.
"Very little time is left" before the planned signing of the EAU founding agreement, he said.
"What have we brought for this event?" he asked.
"There is now a circle of issues on which opinions differ, and their list is alarming," Lukashenko said.
"We are being told that problems, which should have been solved at the previous stage, are better left unsolved," the Belarusian president said.
For instance, there should be no restrictions on goods between the three countries, he said. "Keeping any form of restriction on the movement of goods, including energy resources, for a long time sets an unfavorable precedent," Lukashenko said. Besides, there are unresolved issues concerning auto transportation of goods to and from third countries, he said.
