Abstract
This article provides a comparative analysis of the legal regulation of labor migration in regional integration organizations: the European Communities (ECs) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Methodologically, we argue that a synchronous comparison of the European Union (EU) in its current shape and the EAEU is rather inadequate and draw on a diachronic comparison of labor migration regulation in the EAEU and the ECs. On the one hand, we identify a number of important differences. We show, in particular, that while regulatory mechanisms in the EEC aimed at stimulating new migration flows, in the post-Soviet space mechanisms of regional migration governance provide the existing migration flows with an appropriate normative framework. We also show that in the case of the EAEU, the founding Treaty provided for a number of essential social rights for workers from EAEU Member States, whereas in the EEC these rights appeared at a much later stage. Regulation of labor migration in the EEC and the EAEU also differs in terms of distribution of competencies in this area between national and Community / Union levels. On the other hand, we also find a number of similarities, which hint at dynamics of policy learning. This is, in particular, evident in the development of mechanisms aimed at protection of migrants’ rights. This is also the case of the Agreement on pensions for workers of the EAEU member states, which seems to borrow from the EU experience opting for coordination of Member States’ retirement systems instead of their unification. Overall, some of EEC/EU ‘best practices’ have contributed to important positive developments in the regulation of intra-Union labor migration in the EAEU.
Highlights
This article provides a comparative analysis of the legal regulation of labor migration in regional integration organizations: the European Communities (ECs) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)
European and Eurasian region-building projects have started with steps in the field of economic integration
The degree and significance of economic goal setting were different in these two cases, especially in regards to regulating mobility of workers coming from member states of the respective regional organizations to the territory of other member states
Summary
The EAEU Treaty entered into force in 2015, in a broad sense the history of the EAEU is that of the post-Soviet space, starting with the collapse of the USSR. Some scholars point to similar elements of the CU/SES Treaty and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (as amended by the Lisbon Treaty) in terms of securing freedom of movement, border crossing, and the right to stay on the territory of a member state during and after the end of employment (Davletgildeev and Sycheva, 2015). When comparing it with the EEC Treaty, we can pick out a set of almost identical provisions, as well as some divergences. At the respective stage of development of the EEC, on the contrary, the progress was obvious: the EEC grew from six to nine members over a twenty-year period;[7] the Community adopted secondary legislation aimed at implementing the founding treaties provisions on the freedom of movement of workers and their rights; judicial practice was playing an important role in its development
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