Ratification Process of Belarusian-Russian Agreements

Last year mass media repeatedly pointed to such a problem as procrastination of ratification of bilateral agreements within the Union State. This problem and the ways to solve it were commented upon by Tatiana Sergienko, Counselor of the Union State’s Standing Committee in Minsk, who gave an interview to the correspondent of the information-analysis portal of the Union State.

Last year mass media repeatedly pointed to such a problem as procrastination of ratification of bilateral agreements within the Union State. This problem and the ways to solve it were commented upon by Tatiana Sergienko, Counselor of the Union State’s Standing Committee in Minsk, who gave an interview to the correspondent of the information-analysis portal of the Union State.

“The procedure of ratification of international documents is determined by the legislation of Belarus and Russia. And it is an internal affair of each country. In general, the process is identical and it is not the reason to protract ratification terms of Belarusian-Russian agreements. The process of ratification is being exercised more slowly in Russia. The reason is that there are more ministries and departments which participate in the domestic coordination”, she noted.

Moreover, according to T.Sergienko, the legislation of our countries is on the forming stage, it is being corrected, complimented and supplemented with many new laws. That is why sometimes the following situation takes place: while already signed bilateral contracts and agreements are under domestic concordance, new national laws are being implemented. And some dispositions of signed but not ratified international documents do not correspond to the norms of domestic legislation.

“In the language of law it means that the object of legal regulation is out-of-date. Naturally, we need quite a time to solve the problem”, pointed T.Sergienko. The example is the agreement between Belarus and Russia on guaranteeing equal rights for Russian and Belarusian citizens as regards freedom of movement, option of location and residence place on the territory of the Union State. The main idea of the agreement is to simplify the procedure of getting the permission for permanent residence and to free Russian and Belarusian citizens from the registration in competent authorities at the place of location during 30 days from the date of arrival.

“The Agreement is ratified in the Republic of Belarus. In the Russian Federation while the Agreement was under domestic concordance, national legislation was changed and the concept “migratory record” replaced “registration”, informed the Counselor of Minsk Representative Office of the Standing Committee. – We had to organize additional negotiations and consultations to resolve the emerged conflict. To date the solution has been found and we hope that the Agreement will be ratified by Russia, too.”