MINSK - The Permanent Committee of the Union State of Belarus and Russia has received no instructions from the leaders of the two countries to draft documents to introduce a single currency for the two nations, Union State Secretary of State Grigory Rapota said on Monday, March 12.
"We are the executive body of the Union State, whereas all decisions of this kind are made at political level. At the moment we don’t have any such task. And when we do, you’ll get more interesting and full answers from those who set such tasks anyway," Rapota told a news conference in Minsk in comments on speculation that Belarus might adopt the Russian ruble as its currency.
Citing the euro zone crisis, he warned that having a single currency might have its downside.
"After what happened in Europe, there have been questions whether we haven’t gone too far because we’d be depriving sovereign states of their freedom of maneuver for solving their problems. Moreover, all such problems are a burden on other states as well," he said.
He suggested waiting and seeing how the euro crisis ends. "I think experts who are working on the [proposal for introducing a single Union State currency] will make up their mind and set some tasks to us – or won’t set them," he said.
