Gorki - Observer status in the Customs Union will not allow Ukraine to influence decision-making in the union, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said.
“Can an observer influence any processes? Of course, it can’t. They’re just an observer,” he said in an interview with European reporters and Russia’s Interfax news agency.
While answering a question from Interfax, Medvedev said that the Customs Union countries would respect the position of an observer country and analyze it, “but the observer does not participate in the vote, and it doesn’t have specific rights that are enjoyed by the participants of the Eurasian Economic Union or the participants of the European Union.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said last Monday that the Ukrainian side hopes for observer status in the Customs Union with the right to vote. He said that under this format of cooperation, Kyiv would be able to participate in decision-making and influence it at any stage if this concerns the interests of the Ukrainian side.
“Of course, we’ll be glad to see Ukraine. We’re currently forming approaches to membership of the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Union, and there will be full membership and observer status there,” Medvedev said.
He noted that international integration organizations have different associated and non-associated institutions, but they do not participate in the vote, and “ultimately, their impact on the key, crucial decisions is extremely low.”
“Usually the observer status implies two reasons – either simply, as they say, ‘sniff the air’ and understand what is happening, there’s nothing offensive here, but then there will be no benefits, and secondly, this is the first stage of accession to any integration union,” Medvedev said.
If the issue concerns the second option, the Russian prime minister said, “then we should once again tell our Ukrainian friends that until they join [the Customs Union] fully, not in the three plus one format, they will not enjoy all opportunities and privileges of the Customs Union, and they will be an outsider country for us.”
