Eurasian economic union, called the successor of the Customs Union, will act in the unified rules of trade. Recently it was reported that the European Union agreed to create a free trade zone with the EEU. In this case, it is going to be a long-term cooperation. 

The initiative belongs to Russia, and its prospects were recently discussed in Brussels. With comments on the proposal of V.V. Putin spoke First Commoner of Euro commission, who oversees trade issues, John Clancy. He had noticed that before the creation of free trade zone the EEU must fulfil certain conditions. It was also said that the European Union has no formal relations with the Customs Union, and the EU institutions is merely technical contracts with the Eurasian economic commission, concerning trade protection and phytosanitary standards. 

According to information provided by the European Commission, Russia asks to consider creating the free trade zone by 2020. 

John Clancy also added that the European Union is loyal to cooperate with the unions, who are working on the liberalization of trade relations, but according to European experts, the Union of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia is not an integration association. 

In addition, they focused on the fact that it is impossible to create a free trade zone between Russia and the European Union. This is because after the formation of the Customs Union in 2010 sovereign rights in the area of customs operations, phytosanitary standards, tariff policy were transferred by Russia. 

The initiative of the president of the Russian Federation to establish a free trade zone with the European Union is clear: trade relations with the community play an important role for the country. In the total volume of exports and imports in 2013 (three quarters) the trade turnover between the Russian Federation and the EU was about 50%, with the CIS countries – about 14%, with the Customs Union – 7%.