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Look East: New-Look EU Needs Economic Union With Eurasia

© REUTERS / Yuya Shino/File PhotoA man walks past various currency signs, including the dollar (top R), Australian dollar (top L), pound sterling (centre L) and Euro (bottom L), outside a brokerage in Tokyo October 28, 2014
A man walks past various currency signs, including the dollar (top R), Australian dollar (top L), pound sterling (centre L) and Euro (bottom L), outside a brokerage in Tokyo October 28, 2014 - Sputnik International
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In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum result, Europe needs to form economic partnership with Russia, China and other Asian countries in order to flourish, Austria's Contra Magazine wrote.

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The European Union faces a turning point in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, and would be better off creating a wider economic union than ever closer political union, Marko Maier wrote in Austria's Contra Magazine on Saturday.

"The UK's upcoming exit as a result of the referendum has strengthened forces in other countries which oppose the process of political centralization," Maier wrote.

"Brexit gives clarification that this unification and centralization process only strengthens this opposition, which wants to maintain the cultural and linguistic diversity of Europe."

Despite the public vote to leave the European Union, the UK's politicians have always made clear they want a single European market, and that continued economic integration is the way forward, Maier wrote.

He suggests this should be extended further east to create a Eurasian economic alliance, which would also lead to greater security for Europe and lessen dependence on the US.

"Europe must begin to take advantage of its geographical position, above all economically, and enter into cooperation with its neighbors. However, instead of consolidating the rule of transatlantic corporations with TTIP, TiSA and CETA, it needs a Eurasian alliance, which will bring the European countries together with Russia, Central Asia and China," Maier wrote.

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This union would be purely economic, and not extend to political lecturing about "Western values," Maier wrote. 

"However, the Europeans have to stop posing as political moralists. Someone who has for decades followed politics which favored the seizure of power of multinational corporations and formed an undemocratic entity called the EU, should be a bit quieter about such topics."

"A Eurasian economic community, based on mutual respect, fair conditions for economically weaker members and structural support for poorer states and regions can become an important contribution to a peaceful 21st century, and prevent the US from engaging in the next world war on European and Russian soil," Maier concluded.

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