The Russian state duma supports the idea of Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev about the introduction of one currency in the Eurasian Economic
Union that is to be created in 2015.
The head of government announced this idea on Friday at a
business forum in St. Petersburg.
“This is a logical proposal,” the head of the parliamentary
committee for the CIS affairs Leonid Slutsky said.
He believes that the introduction of the common currency will make
the Eurasian Union a real supra-national organization for ordinary people
and not only “the initiative of presidents formulated on
paper.” “We need a common currency, a common language, common borders,
common law and one parliament,” he said.
He added that it is necessary to take into account global
experience, including the EU.
“It is first of all Schengen and the euro that brought Europeans
together,” Slutsky noted.
He said, however, that the Eurasian Union will not copy the European
Union, although the best moments can be borrowed. Slutsky believes that
the question of a common currency should be solved after 2015, when
the borders of the Eurasian economic union are drawn.
“Only then will it be clear whether it is more reasonable to introduce
a new supra-national currency similar to the euro, or if it is possible to use
Russian rubles in the common economic space.” he concluded.
The Eurasian Economic Union should be created by January 2015 between Russia,
Belarus and Kazakhstan.
