Evan Coleman

Will Longo
Connie Chan
Austin Davis
Phat Nguyen
Edgar Mendoza
Jose Camach
09/07/2016
Professor Mulyanto
Eurasian Economic Community
Define the Organization
The Eurasian Economic Community was an international organization that brought
together six neighboring countries. The purpose of this economic organization was to create
common economic policies between these nations making for universal prices, tariffs, and
customs borders, all easing the flow of trade between these Member States as well as
internationally. The major activities of this community included resolving issues of transport,
energy, workforce migration and the agrarian sector policy. For the concern regarding transport
the (EAEC) was resolving questions concerning unified tariffs, increase of products
transportation volume, simplifying of customs procedures, creation of transnational transport and
consignment corporations (Eurasian Economic Center, n.d.). In regards to energy, the EAEC
created a more efficiently run community by revamping existing hydro-energetic complexes to
resolve water and electricity issues. For workforce migration, the community agreed to create a
regulatory system to settle tax payment issues. Concluding with the agrarian sector, which was a
one track method to grow their agricultural market by reducing transportation and storage costs.

Identify The Members

On October 10, 2000 in Astana Kazakhstan the EAEC was formed by the signing of a
contract by the leaders of its first five member nations. The leaders included: Vladimir Putin;
President of Russia, Nursultan Nazarbayev; President of Kazakhstan, Askar Akayev; President of
Kyrgyztan (replaced by current President; Almazkek Atambayev), Aleksander Lukaslenko;
President of Belarus, and Emomali Rahmon; President of Tajikstan. On October 7, 2005
Uzbekistan joined the Community under President Islam Karimov until it left in 2008 due to
differences in economic policy. Two other entities of the EAEC were the Secratariat, headed by
the Secretary General, and the Interparlimentary Assembly which guided its member nations in
syncing their national economic legislation with the framework of the Community. The Secretary
General was the highest community official and was appointed by the interstate council. In
October 2007 Tair Mansurov was appointed to the position of Secretary General. The three
observer nations of the EAEC were Armenia, Ukraine, and Moldova.
Geography and environment
The Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) consisted of Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. By forming the EAEC, these nations aimed to
not only improve international economic relations but also resolve environmental, geographical,
and social issues. As these six countries border each other, they focused on creating a more
efficient customs transit control to streamline international trade and travel within the
Community. The EAEC also enabled these nations to strengthen and equip their external borders.
Other intergovernmental programs that the community paid special attention to were the
reclamation of territories affected by uranium mining industries, creation of a distribution system

for agricultural products and raw materials, and the general health of their populations. These
programs would benefit the economies, improve environmental conditions, and revamp
geographical relations of the member states. The programs and accomplishments of the EAEC
enhanced international and domestic relations between the member states and laid the foundation
for the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union.
Political Governance
The Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) was composed of former communist
countries of the Soviet Union. All of the member nations political governance were Republics
in theory, but in reality they were authoritarian governances. According to The Economist, the
Democratic Index all the members of the EAEC rated extremely low in civil liberties,
functioning government, electoral process, and political culture. The democratic institutions
were weakened by the branch of the presidency because it operated with authoritarian
governance by doing so making the presidency and implicit dictatorship. For example, Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia worked vigorously to weaken the democratic institutions of
the country, in order to give more powers to the presidency. During the following election year
Vladimir Putin ran for the presidency and won in a fraudulent election. The Soviet-style
authoritarian presidency political governance made it convenient and easier for these countries to
work together to form a union because of their past history.
Economic Issues
The EAEC faced an important issue of getting its members economically and politically
together. Having high tariffs along with authorities approval within the union lead to internal
conflicts between members of the union. The organization therefore put more attention on the

global economic integration. For example, EAECs total GDP in 2012 is 2,346,871 USD, which
is a significantly small amount comparing to other economic organization in the world trading
community. Instead, the union worked on getting its neighbors involved, such as Armenia
(2014), Kyrgyzstan (2015), and currently compromising with Tajikistan. However, as stated
before, adding more members meant there ought to be some changes positively and negatively
that affect the union. For example, factors such as the domestic policies of Russia and the drop in
oil price were major impacts of the Union since the administrative centers were in Moscow,
Russia.
Demographic
The population within the Eurasian Economic Community was estimated at 214 million
people for the five countries. Russia held more than half of the population at 144 million people.
Between the five countries four of them pronouncedly spoke Russian which is the East Slavic
language that is spoken in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan leaving only one other
country from the Community where Russian wasnt their official language which was the
country of Tajikistan. They happened to speak Tajik Persian language leaving them the odd man
out when it comes to speaking a similar or same language. As religion took a huge part for what
each society believed in, it caused diversity among the decisions and beliefs for what to do in a
situation among the community. Between Belarus and Russia, they mainly practiced Orthodox
Christianity. While Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan mainly practiced Sunni Islam. All
countries had a mandatory educational system that starts and ends at different ages. School in
Russia and Belarus was mandatory for ages six to fifteen. Whereas the educational system in
Kyrgyzstan educational was compulsory for ages seven to fifteen. Kazakhstan started off at

seven to sixteen. This leaves Tajikistan with mandatory school attendance from age seven to
seventeen. Each country had a similar range of when to start and end schooling.

References
EurAsEC. (n.d.). Retrieved September 05, 2016, from http://www.eurasian-

ec.com/index.php?

option=com_content
Eurasian Economic Community. (n.d.). Retrieved September 4, 2016 from Belarus Foreign
Affairs website:
http://mfa.gov.by/en/organizations/membership/list/a129a29a6011d384.html
Hartwell, C. (2016, January 27). How To Cure The Woes Of The Eurasian Economic
Union. Retrieved September 2, 2016, from Russia Direct website:
http://www.russia-direct.org/opinion/how-cure-woes-eurasian-economic-union
Putin welcomes eurasian economic community leaders to moscow summit. (2005, Jun 22). BBC
Monitoring Former Soviet Union Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.csulb.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/460337794?accountid=10351
Shadikhodjaev, S. (2008). Eurasian economic community (EurAsEC): Legal aspects of regional
trade integration. St. Louis: Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.library.csulb.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1698253100?accountid=10351
The Economist Democratic Index 2015. (2015). Retrieved September 5, 2016, from
http://www.yabiladi.com/img/content/EIU-Democracy-Index-2015.pdf

The Eurasian Economic Union: Power, Politics and Trade. (2016, July 20).

Retrieved September 3, 2016, from International Crisis Group website:

https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/central-asia/
syria-calling-radicalisation-central-asiahttps://www.crisisgroup.org/
europe-central-asia/central-asia/syria-calling-radicalisation-central-asia