Eurasian Economic Union: measuring interim economic results of integration

Abstract

The article critically reviews the interim economic results of Eurasian integration marking its historical supranational status in 2015 in the format of Eurasian economic union (EEU) given the falling mutual trade volumes second year in a row. The research has identified the dominance of declarative economic achievements in creating common markets and related functional policies, however, with uncertain horizon of implementing integrative mechanisms in the most sensitive fields of energy and finance that are still in the status of exemptions from the de-jure introduced Single market. At the same time, the paper has captured the presence of intra-industry trade for the extractive areas in Kazakhstan and Russia and mechanical engineering in Belarus. Hence, structures of national economies have not experienced an announced tangible upgrade through their participation in the integrative process yet. The research is conservative but still optimistic about the economic prospects for the EEU strongly insisting on greater involvement of business and other non-state actors in the integration process turning it into a more lasting vector of regional development.