CIS Economic Council To Discuss Mutual Help In Emergency Situations In The Energy Sphere

A draft agreement on mutual help in emergency situations involving power supply facilities of the Commonwealth of Independent States is one of the items on the agenda of the 10th session of the CIS Economic Council, which opens in Moscow on Monday. Other items for discussion focus on measures taken by the CIS Council of Customs Services Chiefs to carry out the Free Trade Zone Agreement and the supplementing Protocol, and the setting up of a Coordination Council for informatisation of the sphere of communications in the Regional Community. Apart from that, session participants will discuss the following: a draft convention on the legal status of migrant workers from CIS countries and their families; amendments to the principles of VAT collection in the course of trade operations inside the Commonwealth; the setting up of a united CIS air defence system in 2002 and expenditures involved; and a draft concept of coordinated agrarian policy. Set up in 1999, the CIS Economic Council unites deputy prime ministers. Since then, it has considered almost 300 issues dealing with different aspects of economic life in the Commonwealth.