EAEU Could Welcome Countries Stuck On EU Membership Waiting List - Russian Envoy

Countries whose applications for the EU membership have been put off again and again might find more understanding in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said in a closing speech at the Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona

VERONA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2019) Countries whose applications for the EU membership have been put off again and again might find more understanding in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said in a closing speech at the Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona.

At a two-day summit last week, EU leaders failed to agree on whether to let Albania and North Macedonia begin accession talks. European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission leader Jean-Claude Juncker expressed their disappointment with this decision, while French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that the European Union had to get reformed itself first.

"As for the obvious jealousy that the EAEU's relations with third countries arouse (for example, with Singapore recently, and just today with Serbia), it is quite understandable in a situation where one integration grouping is expanding, and another one is losing members.

By the way, I'm confident that those countries whose EU accession requests have recently been put on Brussels back burner yet again, might find more understanding in the Eurasian Economic Union," the diplomat said.

He remarked, at the same time, that it was important to establish contacts between the Eurasian Economic Commission and the European Commission "for the future trade and economic relations, including bilateral Russian-EU relations, given the fact that many competences have already been transferred to the EAEU level."