Eurasian Economic Union: Mechanisms and meanings of social-humanitarian cooperation

Abstract

The relevance of the research is determined by the need in new opportunities to improve the effectiveness of integration processes in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) under the increasing global instability. The author shows the importance of social-humanitarian cooperation for integration processes, describes its mechanisms, tools and meanings. The article is based on the materials of the governing bodies of the EAEU, state and non-state organizations of the member countries, current publications of the mass media and studies conducted by the Institute of Demographic Research in 2019- 2023. The author describes both the current state of cooperation between the member countries and its problems, such as the local nature of joint events held on a bilateral basis and having a small integration effect; the declining use of the Russian language in the post-Soviet space; the increasing denial of the Soviet past and a low level of support for integration among the younger groups; the lack of an acceptable consensus of the member states in assessing the depth of integration processes; overestimated expectations from the development of countries within the Union; the lack of institutional basis for social-humanitarian interaction and of supranational structures that ensure work with the population of the EAEU. The author sees the prospects for the development of humanitarian cooperation within the Eurasian integration in productive communication projects of a mass nature, which aim at a large audience and form the potential for integration of countries and peoples. The author argues that social-humanitarian projects of Eurasian integration will inevitably require content interesting for younger generations and active social groups, so that cooperation meanings would contribute to the formation of a common socialhumanitarian space of the EAEU.