The Center's Senior Expert Aleksei Petrenko presented proposals on the development of the EAEU Court's competence
How could the advisory function of the The Court is one of the bodies of the EAEU, and its purpose is to ensure uniform application of Union law by member states and bodies, which helps to achieve the goals of integration, including ensuring the economic development of member states and improving the living standards of their populations. be developed? What could be the parameters for giving the Eurasian Economic Commission the right to apply to the Court with regard to the actions of the member states? The Center’s Senior Expert, Aleksei Petrenko gave a presentation at the VII International Conference of the Court of the EAEU, which took place in Minsk, Belarus on 21–22 November 2024.
VII International Conference of the Court of the EAEU
The conference was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union and ensuring the uniform application of EAEU law. Among the participants and speakers were representatives of the highest judicial bodies of the member states of the EAEU and international judicial bodies, the Eurasian Economic Commission and executive authorities of the member states, scholars, and practicing lawyers.
In his presentation, Aleksei focused on rethinking and developing the competencies of the EAEU Court. During the work of the Court, sufficient practice has been accumulated, which allows to assess its relevance and effectiveness. In practice and in doctrine, proposals for improving its work are regularly expressed, and there is a demand for further development of the powers of the Court to ensure uniform application of EAEU law.
Aleksei dwelt on two issues: how the advisory function of the Court can be further developed, and what could be the optimal parameters for granting the Commission the right to have recourse to the Court concerning member states’ actions (if a pivotal decision to vest it with such power is made in the future).
How to develop the Court’s advisory function and why
The practice of frequent applications to the Court for interpretation of the EAEU law is in principle useful for the perception of the Union’s norms in national legal systems. This is done, among other things, for the purpose of preliminary norm control and even the resolution of pre-conflict situations, which is not typical for such functions in international justice.
The advisory function could be developed by expanding the range of applicants authorized to apply to the Court on behalf of member states. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan several applicants (including ministries) have this right, and they often do so. Armenia and Russia have only one such authorized body, and the number of requests is much smaller.
Potentially, such competence may be given not only to state authorities, but also to business associations as is the case in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Questions may arise regarding compliance with the Statute of the Court, which does not allow recourse in an independent capacity, but only on behalf of a member state, which may be problematic in the case of non-state organizations. But the practice itself seems important and potentially contributing to the extension of the Court’s well-established work to new areas of enforcement.
How EEC’s powers could be enhanced and what for
The right to challenge actions of member states before the Court would help the EEC to do a better job of monitoring and controlling the implementation of the Union’s law.
At the same time, expanding the powers of the Commission requires readiness on the part of all participants of integration, primarily member states, but also the EEC itself. Its benefits can be demonstrated by giving this power to the Commission progressively.
At the outset, this may be a power that the Commission lacks as part of its ongoing monitoring and control work. For example, the Court could consider cases regarding the implementation of the Commission’s decisions requiring member states to comply with the relevant provisions of the EAEU law, and the application may be limited to the functioning of the Union’s internal market.
It will also be useful to clarify the pre-trial dispute resolution procedure so that it includes several stages of interaction between the Commission and the member state, including through informal consultations. This will help create enough room to clarify the situation and develop an understanding of the actual need to continue the procedure. Beside all, this would create conditions for a gentle elimination of the identified violations before going to Court.
EAEU as a space for dialogue
In conclusion, Aleksei Petrenko emphasized the importance of understanding the EAEU as a space for dialogue, constantly achieving compromise in cooperation between member states and EAEU bodies, respecting mutual interests.
“This understanding has already contributed to the development of integration in general and the judicial practice of the Union in particular, and, hopefully, it will continue to be an important guideline for the further work of the Court in the new decade and beyond,” — he said.
Eurasian integration in the Center’s agenda
The Eurasian integration, in particular the work of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union, is one of the key research areas for the ICLRC: for example, in search of ways to improve its work, we studied the qualifications for the judges of the EAEU Court, selection and termination of their powers and presented proposals for their improvement in the research paper.
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Areas of professional expertise: Education In 2008, Aleksei graduated from the IKBFU (Kaliningrad). In 2013, he obtained an LL.M. degree with a specialization in international law from the University of Göttingen (Germany). He also completed an exchange semester at the University of Kiel (Germany). In 2024, the degree of Doctor of Law (Dr. jur.) was awarded following the defence of the dissertation at the University of Göttingen. The dissertation was written in the field of international law (“The Right to Regulate in International Economic Law: Towards a General Theory with Lessons from the GATS” In 2016, Aleksei received the “International Law in the 21st Century” Award from the ICLRC. The previous year, the Society of International Economic Law highly commended his paper on WTO law in an essay competition on international economic law. Professional Experience From 2016 to 2017, Aleksei worked as a research assistant at the Institute of International and European Law at the University of Göttingen. Later, Aleksei joined the WTO Expertise Center in Moscow, where he handled inter-State trade disputes from 2017 to 2019. He was a member of the litigation team that achieved the first win in a WTO dispute initiated by Russia. Aleksei participated in over ten inter-State disputes, including panel and Appellate Body proceedings, representing complainants, respondents and third parties. He also took part in WTO committee meetings and conducted practical seminars on trade law for representatives of government agencies and large businesses. Aleksei has developed and taught law courses at three universities in both Russian and English. In 2022, he joined the School of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the Higher School of Economics (Moscow) as an Associate Professor, where he teaches subjects related to public international law. Before joining the ICLRC, Aleksei worked with the Center as an expert, and in 2020, he officially became part of the team, focusing on issues linked to public international law.