Economic Prospects in the Context of Growing Regional Interdependencies: the European Union and the Eastern Partnership

Ganna Kharlamova

doi:10.15388/ekon.2015.2.8232

Abstract

The paper deals with the European Union programme devoted to the eastern neighboring states. Through its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the EU works with its southern and eastern neighbours to achieve the closest possible political association and the greatest possible degree of economic integration. This goal builds on common interests and values — democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights, and social cohesion. The EU is concerned that, despite sufficient funding and support from the EU, the targeted states did not raise to the EU targets for the programme or at least to a relevant one. We assume that such fact happened mostly because, although having very diverse economic and reform pasts emerged from the post-soviet period, they were considered and approached as a single group. The main hypothesis: has the umbrella of the EU funds in terms of the EaP provided for the six targeted states to intensify the growth of regional interdependencies as well as political cooperation and progressive economic integration? The main goal of the paper is to assess, by means of the statistical and comparison approach, the development and the economic sustainability of six targeted states (Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) in the period before and after the programme launching – the degree of regional interdependence and economic integration. The research was conducted using the methods of empirical (regression) analysis, theoretical explanations, descriptive analysis, and the Granger causality test.

Highlights

One goal of strategic importance for the EU has been to reinforce relationships with the neighbor border states since the 1990s
Up to the year 2008 when the idea of Eastern Partnership (EaP) had been presented by the foreign ministers of Poland and Sweden in Brussels, only about 40% of the current scientific collection on the topic had been published in the Google Scholar depository
Taking into account that the Google Scholar contains and offers only 45 published papers, after 2009, which have the “EU & EaP (ENP)” combination in the title or in the body text, we considered those most cited for this analysis (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

One goal of strategic importance for the EU has been to reinforce relationships with the neighbor border states since the 1990s. The major concern for the EU’s foreign policy towards these six targeted states includes the establishment of a democratic government, human rights, the rule of law and socio-economic stability in the region. The potential reasons for this fact relate to internal problems and uneven developments in the six countries, and to historical legacies, culture and the geostrategic context in which the partnership evolves. All these factors need to be understood and accounted for in order to design the policies that durably support transition processes in these six targeted states

Literature review

Statistics and empirical assessment

Findings

Conclusions and discussion