KAZAN, August 27 (RIA Novosti) - The Common Economic Space (CES) summit opened Saturday in Tatarstan's capital, Kazan, which is celebrating its 1,000th anniversary. The presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus will consider the key issues of CES formation."The presidents will consider a draft agreement package aimed at deepening integration processes," a Kremlin source said earlier. The source added the implementation of the documents would help switch over to free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce between the four countries, and later to a customs union.The source said 29 documents of prime importance had been coordinated by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Ukrainian experts took part in coordinating only 15 agreements, of which only 8 were coordinated.
"The situation will be seriously discussed at the summit," the source said.
The four presidents announced the intention to form a Common Economic Space on February 23, 2003. A relevant agreement was signed September 19, 2003.
The Common Economic Space means the economic environment uniting customs areas with economy regulation mechanisms based on single principles ensuring free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce and with a single foreign-trade policy and coordinated tax, monetary-credit and currency and finance policies.
