MOSCOW, 22 October (BelTA) - The West's sanctions policy does not meet the interests of European business, Sergei Glazyev, member of the Board (Minister) on Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission, said at the fifth Conference of German Business "EAEU-2025: Transformation and Prospects" in Moscow on 22 October, BelTA learned from the EEC press service.
“Sergei Glazyev noted that the West's sanctions policy against some EAEU states leads to economic losses for businessmen in the EAEU and Europe as the United States and Asian countries gain new competitive advantages, and as the world's economic activities shift towards Asia. This state of affairs does not meet the interests of European business at all," the press service said.
Sergei Glazyev noted that the European Union continues to be a key trading and economic partner of the Eurasian Economic Union, accounting for 35.5% of EAEU imports. At the same time, since 2013, the trade between the EAEU and the EU has been declining. In 2020, it amounted to $229.2 billion, which was 2.2 times lower than in 2013. The EAEU's trade with Germany totaled $47 billion in 2020, a drop of 1.8 times over 2013.
The German business is a pragmatic audience in matters of a systematic and comprehensive dialogue between the Eurasian and European unions aimed at creating favorable conditions for economic relations and their legal support. However, the voice of business is not yet clearly heard by the European Commission,” Sergei Glazyev said. “The Eurasian Economic Commission outlined its initiatives to intensify contacts with the European Commission back in 2015 in a document mapping out the contours for interaction between the two unions. But today these contacts are limited to the so-called technical dialogue. At the same time, all our proposals remain relevant. Developing a dialogue between the EAEU and the EU is still designated as one of the strategic international priorities of the Eurasian Economic Commission."
According to the EEC minister, the dialogue between the EAEU and the EU can acquire a special importance in the context of new issues facing the global economy, for example, such as the climate agenda or economic recovery post COVID. "It is in the interests of business that the official Berlin should start thinking about the engagement with the EEC, about trade and economic cooperation without waiting for the start of a full-fledged dialogue between the EAEU and the EU, which, unfortunately, is still politically burdened," Sergei Glazyev said.
