When Mr. Lukashenko signed the first agreement in 1996 with President Boris N. Yeltsin, the union was envisioned as a confederation of two countries with close ethnic, cultural and religious ties.
The Euro has been adopted by a confederation of 11 countries, including Germany, Ireland, Italy and France, and will make its debut on Jan . 1 , 1999
Since 2009, the Greek economy has lost all of the 320,000 jobs it created between 2000 and 2008, according to Savas Robolis, a labor market expert at the Greek General Confederation of Labor, the country's main trade union.
That is one reason that Apax has remained a confederation of strong individual country-based operations.
These include Roger Carr, president of the Confederation of British Industry, the country's most prominent business lobby.
And its leader, Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, also heads the Confederation of Mexican Workers, the country's powerful union of unions which is unswervingly loyal to the PRI.
The Confederation of Indian Industry, the country's most prominent business coalition, reiterated on Tuesday its call for the Reserve Bank of India to cut short-term interest rates a full percentage point.
The Confederation of Indian Industry, the country's most powerful business group, representing the large companies that tend to receive most of Indian bank loans, has been lobbying heavily in recent weeks for a full cut of one percentage point in lending rates.
"This package will send a strong signal to investors that the government is serious about providing firms with the certainty they need to invest in affordable, secure, low-carbon energy," John Cridland, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, the country's main business group, said in a statement.
"Power is not something that is given, it is something that you have to take," said Benja Stig-Fagerland, a Danish economist who in 2003 helped lead an effort by the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, the country's main business lobby, to find female leaders.
