Remarks by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:

Mr Massimov, Mr Sidorsky, colleagues, friends,

I am happy to welcome you to Moscow. Today we will discuss several issues regarding a large-scale project of great importance to all of us, the Common Economic Space, which is intended to intensify the integration of our states, make our economies more stable and attractive for investment, and to promote their modernisation and forward-looking development.

The launch of the Customs Union has already tangibly benefitted particular businesses and entire industries and accelerated the processes of economic recovery. I'm pleased that today we are able to meet at the hall where we made the important decisions regarding the formation of the Customs Union.

The logical next step in the integration process is the creation of the Common Economic Space with the free flow of goods, services, capital and labour, and coordinated currency and macroeconomic policies.

We have agreed to finish drafting the agreements that will create the legal framework of the Common Economic Space by January 1, 2011. Our deputy prime ministers, ministers and experts have been working diligently on this. Incidentally, yesterday I discussed the details of these documents with them late into the night.

I'd like to remind you that we need to coordinate 17 major agreements, and we're almost done with eight of them - only a few minor issues need to be finalised. Let me name several of these agreements just to illustrate the level of integration we have reached: the agreement on common principles and rules for technical regulation, on cooperation to counter illegal labour immigration from outside countries, on the legal status of working migrants and their families...

Five agreements are almost done. These are the agreement on coordinated macroeconomic policies, on common principles and regulations of business competition, on government purchases, on common regulations for state agricultural support, and on common rules of providing subsidies for industrial companies. Clearly, these are the cornerstones of every economy.

The rest of the draft agreements are also being coordinated and finalised. Today we will review several major documents, which will establish the main principles of our interaction in several critical industries, including railways, power generation, oil and gas. I am not going to list all issues we need to discuss today - I'd only like to say that each of them is really vital for our economies. Clearly, each party has their own views on these issues, and our goal is to find the common denominator. I believe that we will find mutually acceptable solutions if we work together in the spirit of partnership and constructive dialogue, building on the experience we have gained and the trust and cooperation we have developed. The main thing is that we all understand the enormous opportunities the Common Economic Space will create and that we all have a stake in the successful implementation of this project. The principles we will be guided by in this work are set forth in the agreements I named.

The Common Economic Space will create common rules for economic activity, giving businesses freedom of choice and more space to work in. Businesses should feel at home no matter which of our countries they are operating in.

I believe that our next step to intensify integration should be the unification of the national legislation of our countries. While creating the common legal framework, we should be guided by the best international practices.

In addition, we should continue to expand the powers of the Commission of the Customs Union, taking advantage of the experience we have been gaining through our work on customs and tariff regulation.

There's one more issue we need to discuss today, the involvement of our partners at the CIS and EurAsEC in these integration processes. As you know, some of them have shown a great deal of interest in cooperation through the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space since we began discussing them. We have discussed these issues with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Now that the mess in our relations with Kiev has been left behind, our Ukrainian partners are showing interest in joining our integration alliances to derive certain benefits for their economy. We are eager to discuss these processes and the involvement of each of our partners in the post-Soviet space.

This will intensify integration processes in the post-Soviet space. We have acknowledged openly that the coordination of our agreements is a difficult and sensitive process. Those who will join later will need to adhere to the agreements we forge through this difficult work.