Reform of the CIS: A New Stage in the Organization’s Development?

A CIS Foreign Ministers Council took place on April 8, 2016. The event went virtually unnoticed in the media and the expert community. However, the meeting could influence the subsequent development of the post-Soviet space significantly, as the issues addressed pertained to the institutional reform of the Organization.

A CIS Foreign Ministers Council took place on April 8, 2016. The event went virtually unnoticed in the media and the expert community. However, the meeting could influence the subsequent development of the post-Soviet space significantly, as the issues addressed pertained to the institutional reform of the Organization. Kazakhstan initiated the structural reforms in the Commonwealth governance (as was the case with the Eurasian Economic Community), which has led many to believe that reforming the CIS in fact marks the beginning of the Organization rolling back its operations. However, what does reforming the CIS really signify for its member states, both in improving the efficiency of its bodies and in the process of shaping a multilevel integration field in the Eurasian space?

A decision was adopted at the Meeting of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council on the need to reform the main structures of the CIS (institutional reform for the purpose of optimizing the governance system and increasing the effectiveness of the CIS). It was already decided, among other things, to develop the humanitarian activities of the CIS countries, expand the integration with the United Nations and strengthen interaction in political conflict resolution within the Commonwealth’s member countries.

N. Roerich, Novgorod bargaining, 1920
Ivan Timofeev, Elena Alekseenkova:
Eurasian Geo-Economics: A View from Russia

Thus, the decision to reform the CIS could be viewed as a new stage in the organization’s development and the start of a “mega-project” for harmonizing all the integration structures working within the countries of the Commonwealth.

Especially noteworthy was the series of issues aimed at creating a single security zone at all levels within the framework of implementing the OSCE Astana Summit declaration, the non-proliferation of ballistic missiles and increasing the international role of the CIS as an integration bloc. The CIS Foreign Ministers Council adopted a number of decisions aimed at developing humanitarian cooperation in healthcare, the arts, and culture (holding the ART EXPO International Exhibition of the member states, and the Cultural Capitals of the Commonwealth exhibition). The representatives of the countries also agreed to help enhance security, counter terror threats, and develop projects to harmonize information exchange systems for military purposes and protect participants in criminal trials.

The detailed list of issues discussed at the CIS Foreign Ministers Council shows the significance of this body in terms of taking integration to the level of the more advanced integration structures such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Thus, the issues of optimizing the bodies of the Commonwealth become all the more relevant: in order to make its institutions more efficient, it is necessary to minimize the duplication of functions within integration structures. Thus, the decision to reform the CIS could be viewed as a new stage in the organization’s development and the start of a “mega-project” for harmonizing all the integration structures working within the countries of the Commonwealth.

The Meeting also considered the proposals of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova to expand economic and social interaction, which could further contribute to resolving the problems related to the greater economic involvement of non-member countries in the EEU.

EPA/ALEXEY NIKOLSKY
Irina Bolgova:
Commonwealth of Independent States: New
Wine into Old Wineskins?

Functions of the CIS institutional bodies should be changed in such a way as to enable them to resolve the issues of including non-EEU member countries in the economic integration process.

Such a step would allow the conditions for expanding economic relations and developing the social infrastructure of CIS countries to be created. Such proposals involve reforming the main body of the CIS Executive Committee. Currently, the CIS system includes about 70 groups and committees working on developing the legislative basis for social and economic cooperation between the countries of the Commonwealth. They are now much less in demand, since the resolution of a large number of issues was transferred to the EEU, where such issues are considered at the level of the single market, not just at the level of commercial cooperation. Consequently, the functions of the CIS institutional bodies should be changed in such a way as to enable them to resolve the issues of including non-EEU member countries in the economic integration process. This would allow for the development of multi-level integration within the framework of economic interaction between the CIS and the EEU. Reforming the bodies of the CIS Executive Committee will also allow issues of budget optimization to be solved, since maintaining cumbersome governance bodies under the conditions of an economic slowdown is becoming an unbearable burden for most CIS countries.

It is hoped that the meetings of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council will have taken on more definite forms by the upcoming CIS Summit in Bishkek, and decisions will be adopted that will speed up reforms of the bodies of the CIS Executive Committee, and of the CIS itself. Otherwise, the existing structure will not be capable of tackling the current challenges of re-formatting the integration interaction of the CIS member states.