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Speech of H.E. F. Valenzuela, Ambassador-Head of Delegation of the EU to the Russian Federation, International Conference on a “Common Economic Space 2020″

30/11/2011 in News and Events Comments off

Speech of H.E. F. Valenzuela, Ambassador-Head of Delegation of the EU to the Russian Federation,
International Conference on a “Common Economic Space 2020″
21 November 2011

I am very pleased to contribute to your International Conference on a “Common Economic Space 2020 – Technical Regulations – an integration instrument”.
With the integration sought through the Customs Union, your countries are going a very similar way to the one the European Union has gone over the last 50 years with the elimination of technical barriers to trade, the harmonisation of technical regulations and standards and finally the creation of a single European market where the free circulation of goods, services and capital has been ensured. We can but encourage you to go this way : it has improved the quality of life of our citizens and enhanced the wealth and competitiveness of our economies.

The subject of technical regulations and standards may appear to politicians as rather technical and boring. However, the success – or failure – of market access and trade depends to a large extent on the question of whether or not relevant features of technical legislation are effectively managed in accordance with international rules for trade.
Trade figures show how deeply our respective economies are already inter-twinned : the EU is Russia’s main trading partner accounting for slightly more than 50% of its trade turnover. More than 2/3 of foreign investment in Russia comes from the EU. The other way round, Russia is the third largest trading partner for the EU after China and the US. We are confident that the volume of trade and investment between EU and Russia together with the member countries of the Customs Union can even be further increased if all partners adhere to the international rules.
In this context, I should note with great satisfaction that we are reaching the very final stage at the end of which Russia will hopefully become very soon Member of the WTO. We are expecting a final decision to be taken at the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva on 15-17 December. Membership of WTO entails rights and obligations for all member parties and an even more important part of international trade will be subject to the international rules governing trade. We note that the actors of the Customs Union will also be committed to this international regime.

I am very pleased to see on the list of today’s speakers, the name of Dr. Boris Aleshin, the President of the International Standardisation Organisation ISO. Thanks to the forthcoming Russia’s adherence to the WTO, we share the principle of the primacy of international standards and we are looking forward that Russia is making use of international standards to a similar extent as the EU.
For more than 18 months Russia and the EU have been engaged in the Partnership for Modernisation agreed between President Medvedev and President Barroso. This encompasses also the alignment and technical regulations and standards to the EU regime and rules. As technical regulations have now become a matter of responsibilities and competence of the Customs Union, there is an opportunity to strive for alignment between the Custom Unions and EU technical regulations.
Alignment is not an end in itself. I refer to Prime Minister Putin and his vision of a large economic space from Vladivostok to Lisbon. Such a large economic space, where products may freely circulate, requires common technical regulations and standards, or at least much more convergence in these areas.
The benefits of such alignment are evident: they are similar to those resulting already today from a large European single market: compliance with common technical regulations and standards will reduce compliance costs for businesses and generate economies of scale. This contributes to render our respective industries more competitive at a global scale. Consumers may have a larger choice of products or services. Finally there should be a win-win situation for our respective economies and businesses.
We note that the process of harmonisation of technical regulations is reaching momentum within the Customs Union and covers product sectors which have also been harmonised within the EU. Our services and experts in the European Union are committed to share their knowledge and experience on relevant EU legislation and its implementation.
The European Commission has forwarded comments on several draft CU technical regulations, relating in particular to electrical equipment, machinery, toys and energy efficiency. We are currently analysing to which extent our comments have been taken into account.
Subject to the further completion of our analysis, it appears that approximation could be achieved already, to some extent, in particular with regard to safety requirements to relevant products. We explicitly welcome this achievement. This should enable your regulators to make use, to the broadest extent possible, of the same international and European standards as they are used within the EU. Therefore, we hope that the cooperation agreement between the European standardisation bodies CEN/CENELEC and Rosstandart can be signed as a matter of highest priority. This should enable standardisation experts from the CU countries to cooperate at the technical level with their EU/EFTA counterparts in view of the updating of existing and the development of new voluntary standards.
In view of our forthcoming cooperation we appreciate that recently a list of areas could be finalised in which in 2012 and beyond approximation of CU and EU technical regulations can be achieved. Approximation of sector technical regulations can only become successful if also the underlying horizontal concepts such as the ones relating to conformity assessment, accreditation, use of voluntary standards and market surveillance will be aligned. We are prepared, from EU side, to give in our Regulatory Dialogue and in new cooperation projects, a high priority to the horizontal regulatory concepts with the objective in mind to reach alignment to the largest extent possible. So far, we note yet major divergences in that regard : indeed, where products, due to their inherent low risks can be placed on the market under the sole responsibility of manufacturers or suppliers, we prefer that full responsibility is being given to them to act accordingly. We are therefore concerned that even in the case of – in our opinion – low risk products, the intervention of a certification body to grant, for example, a registration on the basis of a documentation is being required. As we cooperate with the objective of modernisation and stimulate innovation, we encourage you to review again the need for administrative burdensome procedures and the potential of further deregulation.

To conclude, I would like to reiterate our commitment to cooperate with the Customs Union and their member countries in the process of regulatory modernisation. Let us seize an historic opportunity to transfer gradually the vision for an Eurasian area of free circulation of goods into reality. In this sense, I wish that our cooperation will continue successfully.