RT special correspondent Konstantin Pridybaylo shared his opinion on how the European Parliament differs from the Parliament of the Union State. Here is what he in particular said on Radio Minsk on February 28:
“For example, how does the Union State differ? We have a Parliamentary Assembly, which consists of people from the Russian parliament and the Belarusian parliament. And, by the way, new faces appear there now. And the Union State, this large parliament that deals with strategic things, consists of elected people. In theory, if we took the model of the European Union… there is the Russian parliament, the Belarusian parliament — and then they elected some people who were on the sideline. Well, I don't know, someone from the street. After all, a member of the European Parliament is funny.”
The current Treaty on the Creation of the Union State states that elections to the Union Parliament must be universal, that is, exactly the same as in the EU:
“Parliament consists of two chambers - the House of the Union and the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives consists of 75 deputies from the Russian Federation and 28 deputies from the Republic of Belarus, elected on the basis of universal suffrage by secret ballot.”
The creation of the Union Parliament was postponed indefinitely until the adoption of the Constitutional Act of the Union State, although the corresponding agreement was signed back in 1999. Its draft also states that “citizens of the Union State have the right to elect and be elected to the parliament of the Union State.” Just the same way as in the EU.
For more than 20 years, this act has not been adopted, so the functions of the Union Parliament are temporarily performed by the Parliamentary Assembly, consisting of deputies of the Russian and Belarusian parliaments.
