Legal Challenges of the EU-Belarus Relations

Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal. 2018. No. 4. P. 65–79.

Karliuk M.

EU-Belarus relations have seen many changes throughout the years ranging from closer engagement to isolation. Although recently the relations started to improve, the main international agreement between Belarus and the EU is still the one concluded by the Soviet Union. Even though there are plans on changing the situation and concluding a new international framework agreement with the EU, it is clear that Eurasian integration is of primary importance for Belarus. This article focuses on analyzing the legal basis of the EU-Belarus relations, effect that international contractual obligations have in the domestic legal order, and the way membership to the Eurasian Economic Union influences that. It is argued that new contractual legal framework between Belarus and the EU is imaginable, although it would be limited, among others, due to transfer of certain exclusive competences to the supranational level of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Keywords: международное право, Беларусь, ВТО, ЕС, EU, WTO, Belarus, international law, Европейская политика соседства, European Neighbourhood Policy