The Agreement on the Establishment of the Single Economic Space was done at Yalta on 19 September 2003, in a single authentic copy in Russian, deposited in the archives of Kazakhstan, the depositary. The Parties are Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Vladimir Putin signed for Russia. It is not the 2010 Customs Union, nor the 2014 Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, later instruments without Ukraine.

Article 1 launches the process. The Single Economic Space is defined as an environment uniting the Parties’ customs territories, with common principles for the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour and with a foreign-trade, tax and monetary policy conciliated to the extent needed for equal competition and macroeconomic stability. Article 2 lists, at high level, a free-trade area without exclusions and restrictions, unification of technical and sanitary rules, macroeconomic harmonisation, approximation of trade law and common principles for natural monopolies, without tariff lists or tariff formulas.

Article 3: the measures in the annexed Concept, an integral part, plus a main action plan. Article 4: a Council of Heads of State, one state one vote, decisions by consensus; a single regulatory body, with weighted votes according to economic potential, whose decisions bind all Parties; any Party may ask the Council to review a decision; a compensation mechanism, still at high level, if a decision causes substantial damage. Article 5: staged integration at different speeds; no Party may hinder another from moving faster.

Article 6: the legal basis is the treaties and the decisions of the SES bodies, consistent with domestic law and international law. Article 7: disputes are settled by consultations and negotiations. Article 8: open to other States on terms agreed by all Parties. Article 9: amendments by protocols, under the procedure of Article 10. Article 10: entry into force on the day the depositary receives the last notification that internal procedures are complete — 20 May 2004. Article 11: indefinite duration; withdrawal on at least twelve months’ notice.

The Verkhovna Rada ratified on 20 April 2004, with a reservation that Ukraine takes part within the limits of its Constitution. Ukraine later withdrew, with effect from 29 June 2023. The text consulted is the Kremlin version, aligned with the UNCTAD translation and with the text on zakon.rada.gov.ua. The annexed Concept remains a programme of action, not a tariff schedule.

Cover: Livadia Palace in Yalta, the high-level diplomatic venue of the meeting; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Common Economic Zone Agreement; Agreement on the Formation of the Single Economic Space.