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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the supreme governing body of the Customs Union comprising Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan at the head-of-government level

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Vladimir Putin's speech at the meeting:

Good afternoon,

I would like to welcome you all to St. Petersburg.

I would like to note from the very beginning that we are satisfied with the efficient, cooperative work that has been done to establish the Customs Union. The Customs Union is obviously outgrowing the purely economic format and is becoming a new geopolitical reality. One might say that the emerging common economic space is a key aspect of the integration processes in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Community.

These developments are extremely beneficial for all participants because they create favourable conditions for rapid economic growth.

As we see it, the Customs Union has gotten off to a good start. All of its central mechanisms are functioning normally. But, due to purely objective reasons, it is difficult to implement such an ambitious and complicated project on a tight schedule.

Notably, we manage to find solutions and reach mutually acceptable agreements even in the most complicated situations.

The Customs Union Commission plays a significant role. Beginning on January 1, 2010, it was vested with a number of supranational functions. This and the mandatory nature of its decisions are seen as correct moves toward a more complete integration.

Together we are now launching the next stage of cooperation, namely, the enactment of the Customs Code, effective on July 1, 2010. At the same time, the legal framework of common economic space is being promptly drafted. Each participant will have to compromise in order to accomplish this objective.

Today, we will approve an entire range of key decisions. This primarily means treaties and agreements comprising the legal framework of the Customs Union. This also includes a specific plan to enact agreements on the rules for determining the origin of goods from developing and the least developed nations, on joint regulations for determining the country of origin of goods, the relevant principles for levying indirect taxes during the export and import of goods, the execution of work and the provision of services in the Customs Union, protocols on the procedure for transferring foreign-trade and mutual-trade statistical data and on the status of the customs-statistics centre of the Customs Union Commission.

And, finally, an entire document package should be enacted together with the Customs Code on July 1, 2010.

In all, we have to draft 18 treaties and agreements. Of this number, eight have already been approved by the Customs Union Commission, and three more are scheduled to be approved. The rest are being discussed. As far as I know, my colleagues worked here yesterday until almost 2 a.m.

I propose instructing our specialists to work even more efficiently and to quickly complete the coordination of all documents.

The enactment of international and inter-governmental agreements on applying sanitary, veterinary-sanitary and phytosanitary measures in the Customs Union, as well as documents on technical regulation and the functioning of an integrated information system of foreign and mutual trade, will play an important role in establishing a common customs territory beginning on July 1, 2010. I would like you to prioritise the assessment of these matters.

Let's get down to work.