MINSK, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Belarusian parliament will meet on Thursday to debate a bill that will ratify the treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russia-led bloc styled on the European Union, a senior Belarusian lawmaker told RIA Novosti late on Wednesday.
"The session on [October] the ninth will discuss the issue of ratifying this treaty," said Nikolai Samoseiko, chairman at the Legal Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, which is the lower house of the country's parliament.
The upper house confirmed that the bill would be debated in the second half of the day, as soon as it is cleared by the lower house.
Earlier, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko voiced concern about Russia's planned changes to its fiscal policy, saying his country's oil refineries could lose more than $1 billion in taxes. Belarusian lawmakers said this and other disputes must be settled before ratifying the treaty
Belarus pays an annual $4 billion in taxes to Russia for exporting petroleum products which are processed from Russian oil at Belarusian oil refineries.
The Union will officially go into effect on January 1 of the next year, assuming the treaty is approved by the parliaments of the three member countries: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill to ratify the Eurasian Economic Union treaty. The Kazakh parliament is expected to debate the ratification on Thursday.
