Legal Aspects of Flexible Integration: the Potential of the EAEU

Introduction. The article discusses approaches to the application of flexible integration approaches in the Eurasian Economic Union (the EAEU), taking into account the experience of law enforcement of these approaches in the European Union (the EU). The authors trace the history of the evolution of legal regulation in the context of flexible integration of the EU in a comparative legal aspect with the regulation of the EAEU. Within the framework of the study, the authors identify the main ways of applying flexible integration within the framework of the EAEU law, paying special attention to the role of national regulation and relevant organizational and legal mechanisms that can be applied to achieve the goals provided for by the treaty that established the EAEU. Materials and methods. In the course of writing the work, a set of general scientific, formal-logical methods (including methods of cognition, description, analysis, induction, deduction, comparison, analogy, systematization, modeling) and special methods (formal-legal, historical, comparative-legal, structural-legal methods; content analysis method, etc.) were used. Results of the study. An analysis of the legislation of the EU and the EAEU revealed a diversity of approaches to the possibility of implementing flexible integration mechanisms. On the one hand, the EU, having a longer history of the development of legal regulation of integration processes, has instruments of flexible integration enshrined in acts of primary law (for example, the mechanism of advanced cooperation). On the other hand, the absence of a similar base in the EAEU legal system is compensated by other mechanisms of the EAEU law. Discussion and conclusions. The study showed that flexible integration mechanisms form an important basis for the development of integration in the EU and the EAEU. Despite the lack of uniformity of organizational and legal mechanisms, the target value remains similar in terms of the formation of supranational regulation through unification and harmonization methods. The EAEU, being a promising association, has great opportunities and areas for applying flexible integration.