Topic summary
Union of Sovereign States
Extracted from the Wikipedia article New Union Treaty.
Key points of the Treaty
- Union of Sovereign States: The treaty proposed to set up a Union of Sovereign and Equal States based on democracy and rule-of-law as successor to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This new polity was envisioned as a voluntary association of sovereign republics with a common federal government. A member joins the Union either directly or as a part of other states, and relations between members when one of them is a part of another are regulated by treaties between them.
- Presidential Council: The treaty proposed the creation of a Presidential Council that would consist of the leaders of the republics and the president of the Union. This council would be responsible for making important decisions and coordinating policies at federal level.
- A Union Constitutional Court would be created to settle disputes over questions of the exercise of the powers of Union organs.
- The legislative power of the Union would be exercised by the USSR Supreme Soviet, which consists of two chambers: the Soviet of the Republics, elected by the population of the whole country, and the Soviet of the Union.
- Decentralization of Power: The treaty aimed to decentralize political power by granting greater autonomy to the Republics giving them general guarantees about the right to control their own resources and legislate including the right to freely secede from the Union.
- Division of Powers: The central government would handle issues of defence, foreign affairs, financial system, energy resources and overall coordination along with issuing its currency. The republics would determine their own national-state and administrative territorial structure. The republics would also be given ownership of their natural resources, except gold and diamond resources, along with the right to establish direct diplomatic and trade relations with foreign states. The Republics and the central government would jointly determine military and foreign policy and work out policies on economy, fuel, and energy resources.