EU Council of Ministers will finally decide whether to recognize Russia's market economy status

On Thursday, November 7, the EU will finally settle the issue of recognizing officially the market economy status of Russia.

According to an interview with the head of the European Commission General Directorate on Trade Regulations Fritz-Harold Wenig, the EU Council of Ministers will adopt the amendments to the EU anti-dumping legislation during the meeting on November 7th.

The EC representative explained that those amendments would introduce a new status of a country with the market economy, which the EU will eventually grant to Russia. The decision to grant this status followed its de-facto recognition made by the EC Chairman Romano Prodi on May 29th during the "Russia-EU" summit in Moscow.

"The final decision has been made and it only a matter of formal procedure without any additional discussions on the subject," Wenig said.

"The procedure will take no more than a few minutes," he underlined.

According to Wenig, the decision to grant the official market economy status to Russia would give Russian business significant advantages in terms of its operation on the European markets.