MINSK - The goal of forming a Eurasian union could be attained before the end of 2013, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
"It has taken us 18 months to lay the groundwork. Well, let us finish the job by the end of 2013. Both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev have been saying all along: ‘We can do this.’ So, we will probably find ourselves closer to reaching this goal," Lukashenko said in an interview with the Vesti on Saturday program.
A faster transition from the Common Economic Space to the Eurasian Union, earlier than 2015, was discussed over a working dinner with the Russian and Kazakh presidents in Moscow on Nov. 18 , he said.
"The essence of the current moment is that we have started moving. The inertia of the movement will not allow us to turn back. What matters now is that we are moving towards greater unification and a stronger unity," he also said.
The Eurasian Union will be a union of sovereign states, Lukashenko noted. "As we see it today, it will be a union of sovereign states with supra-national governing bodies. We will delegate some 175 functions to the Commission alone," the Belarusian president said.
