Eurasian Economic Community

The Eurasian Economic Community was a regional organization that existed between 2000 and 2014 with the aim of economic integration among its member states, growing out of the Commonwealth of Independent States framework established in 1996. Its founding treaty was signed on October 10, 2000, in Astana, Kazakhstan, by the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan joined in October 2005 before withdrawing in October 2008. During its fourteen years the organization established a customs union among its members on January 1, 2010, and created the Eurasian Economic Space on January 25, 2012, modeled on the European Union, to allow freer movement of goods, capital, services and people. It was formally terminated on December 31, 2014, and replaced by the Eurasian Economic Union, which began operating on January 1, 2015.