Contradictions Arising from Domestic Law within the EAEU Should be Put for Discussion

• 07.25.2017, 15:52
•  EEU,  Armenia

BlogNews.am

Since June 1, a law entered into force in Russian Federation, which prohibits taking employees with foreign driving licenses. The law caused a justified chaos, especially among the citizens of the EAEU member states, who work in the Russian Federation.

Although the provisions and the arguments of the RF law are convincing and objective, including not mastering Russian road laws and regulations by non-Russian drivers, the limited contacts with the Russian-speaking community, etc., there is yet another aspect of the issue. The countries are in the united economic union, where there are numerous unified declarations, including the free movement of capital and labor.

The guarantee of any effective economic activity is ensuring free movement of labor and capital. This is regulated by the EAEU Treaty, in particular by Article 28, which states: "The internal market includes an economic territory in which free movement of goods, people, services and capital is provided in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty." Thus the abovementioned law of the Russian Federation contradicts the free movement of labor force, the opportunities provided by EAEU, given the fact that the Armenian citizens drivers working in Russia have their certain place in the Armenian-Russian labor market cooperation.

In this sense, it is accepted in the world practice that domestic legislation should not contradict to any supranational law (in this case, the EAEU Treaties), and, in the case of contradictions, the priority is given to the latter.

Recently, the RA Justice Minister Davit Harutyunyan touched upon the issue, noting that driving licenses are considered national documents and that it is the decision of the given country whether to allow foreign certificates or not. Meanwhile, it is necessary to state once again the existence of certain supranational agreements, which suggests that such issues should be solved in the course of joint discussions, which, in fact, are currently underway. Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Armen Ashotyan stated this.

According to him, the parliamentary delegations of the two countries agreed to continue discussions on the recognition of Armenian driving licenses in Russia in other parliamentary formats, in particular through parliamentary hearings, in search of the most optimistic versions of the problem.