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Eurasian Economic Commission to be formed within 2 months

“The Commission is registered as a legal entity and work is underway to find the building where it will work,” Khristenko said

MOSCOW, March 19 (Itar-Tass) — The Eurasian Economic Community, which is being formedmainly on a competitive basis, will be staffed within two months, Viktor Khristenko, chairman of the Commission’s Board, said.

“I am convinced that we will be able to get key personnel in place within two months,” Khristenko said at a summit of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) on Monday, March 19.

He said the process is going in accordance with the quotas approved by the member states: 6 percent from Belarus, 10 percent from Kazakhstan and 84 percent from Russia.

“All appointments are made on a competitive basis. There are about 350 vacancies to compete for. The odds are one to three,” he said.

The Eurasian Economic Community’s Board meets weekly to solve mainly organisational questions.

So far three advisory commissions have been set up: on trade policy, on tax policy, and on administration, technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Also, eight department directors have been appointed.

“The Commission is registered as a legal entity and work is underway to find the building where it will work,” Khristenko said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the Agreement on the Eurasian Economic Commission on November 18, 2011. The commission started working on January 1, 2012.

The commission will work in Moscow for the time being despite Kazakhstan’s insistence to host “the Eurasian headquarters”.

The commission will employ up to 800 people. Russia delegateed Tatyana Valovaya, director of the governmental Department of International Cooperation, and Andrei Slepnev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development to become Commissioner for Trade, who will also have to quite their current jobs.

By analogy with the European Commission, they will be Eurasian commissioners.

Prikhodko stressed the importance of the Russian-Belarusian-Kazakhstani commission. “This is the first time a supranational commission has been set up,” he said.

The commission will coordinate integration processes within the Customs Union and the Unified Economic Space.

The Commission’s highest body will be the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council that will convene at the level of heads of state and government. The Commission will have a Council made up of deputy prime ministers, which will carry out overall supervision of integration processes, and a Board, a working body to which all member states will delegate their representatives.

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