Crises and EU’s global economic power: Τhe trade and investments dimensions

Abstract

The last decade has been one of the most challenging periods for European integration. The decade started with a sovereign debt crisis that hit hard the Eurozone’s peripheral member states and ended with the economic wreckage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. As expected, the global financial crisis and the Euro-crisis have had an impact on the orientation of the EU as a global economic power. Two of the main aspects of the EU’s economic power are its trade and investment power. The aim of this paper is to provide an evaluation of the impact of the global financial and Euro-crisis in the European Union’s performance on these two dimensions of the EU’s power.