The Eurasian Economic Union: Complimentary or Competitive Structure to the European Union

Abstract

Regional integration between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan appears to be the most effective integrational process in the post-Soviet area. In the very nearly future the Customs Union can evolve to the Eurasian Economic Union (the EEU)—a structure characterized by the features of common market. Geographical evolution is also taken into consideration. New members of the structure are going to be Armenia and Kyrgyzstan and maybe some other countries. From the point of view of the customs union theory this structure should enhance efficiency in production, increase production levels, improve positions of these countries in international division of labour and improve their level of integration with the world economy. But not all custom unions have been economic success. The particular integrational steps should be driving factors for their economies but sometimes they perpetuate economic backwardness. The EEU can be a formula of cooperation with the European Union. The main aim of this article is an answer to the questions how much economic integration in the framework of the EEU can be complementary to the processes in the EU, and how much it is rather a kind of competition model or even an alternative way of economic relations to the ties linking post-Soviet countries with the EU countries.