Eurasian Integration Yearbook 2012

Customs Unionand the Single Economic Space2Eurasian Economic Integration:Origins, Patterns,and OutlooksTatyanaValovayaTatyana Valovaya – Ph.D. in economics, Member of the Board,Minister of the Eurasian Economic Commission. Professor at theFinancial University in Moscow.Over twenty years ago, on December 8-10, 1991, two very importantgeopolitical events happened in Europe and Eurasia.On December 8, 1991, a decision to dissolve the Soviet Union was taken inBelovezhskaya Pushcha. And on the next day in Maastricht, leaders of theEuropean community decided to create the European Union (EU).The coincidence in the timing of these two events allows me to reword thefamous proclamation of the French royal ritual: “The Union is dead, long livethe Union!”Indeed, the Soviet Union died, but another union emerged on the globe – theEuropean Union, which is, obviously, built on absolutely different economicand political principles. When new independent states began to search for waysof interaction after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, they used (and continueto use), the European Union as a reference point, as opposed to the Sovietone.This is a very important, key aspect – one that is practically disregarded.All initiators of the integration processes in the post-Soviet space chose andcontinue to choose the European Union as a model, despite its own problems,which have become very acute. However, this is the only functioning integrationmodel that is used as an example in Eurasia, Latin America and other parts ofthe world.The history of Eurasian integration is actually an attempt to build somethingsimilar to the EU.This history is meandering, complicated, controversial and sometimes verydramatic.42 EDB Eurasian Integration Yearbook 2012