SINGLE MARKET OF THE EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION: DE JURE, DE FACTO, DE LEGE FERENDA

Abstract

Introduction: according to Article 4 of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, one of the main objectives of the EAEU is to strive for the formation of a common market of goods, services, capital, and labor resources within the Union. The program documents of the EAEU pay considerable attention to this, and the fundamental areas of the Union's activities are related to the functioning of the single mar-ket. Purpose: the research is devoted to the assessment of the current legal regulation of the common (single, internal) market of the EAEU and trends in its development. The authors aim to explain the ter-minological differences, determine the state of the single market de jure, identify de facto regulatory and organizational challenges, and, accordingly, outline the prospects de lege ferenda. Methods: general scientific methods of formal logic and dialectics, the method of system analysis and synthesis, economic analysis of law, comparative legal, and legal-technical methods. Results: the single market of an integra-tion association is an interstate space in which the barrier function of customs borders is abolished and any obstacles to mutual trade are eliminated. Traditionally, the basic conditions for a common market include freedom of movement of goods, services, capital, and labor. Modern challenges and technologies of development expand traditional approaches, today the ‘fifth freedom’ of the market comes to the fore – the freedom of movement of digital and information resources in the regional association. The role of positive integration methods, aimed at the active formation of common market conditions, is also in-creasing. Conclusions: the authors identify differences in terminology with respect to the common (sin-gle) and internal market in the EAEU law taking into account comparative characteristics and come to the conclusion about the importance of the following: formation of an updated concept of a single mar-ket of development resources, with a focus on innovation and human capital; uniform approaches in le-gal understanding and enshrinement of categories and principles of the common market; intensified re-moval of barriers and introduction of new legal instruments of the internal market within the Union for the purpose of advanced development.