The European Export Support as a Strategic Challenge and a Precondition for the EU Economic Growth

Abstract

The European Union lost its priority status within the global economy, both in terms of exports growth rate and also its share in the global exports. And it just happened in a situation when the growth of economic involvement of individual countries or groups of countries is not only considered as an important indicator, but also a factor of economic growth. At the same time the global risk rate of human society development is increasing. Recently the EU went through some institutional changes, as the economic and financial crisis fades away, including the establishment of the European Commission as well as the effort towards the change of its economic policy. However the Multiannual Financial Framework, the EU budget, was compiled back in 2012, i.e. in the period with only few minor signs of economic recovery. The structure of this EU budget for the period 2014-2020 is therefore tailored to the structure applied in the past budgeting periods. Therefore the budget neither is nor it can become a framework for the offensive EU economic policy. One of the reasons is that it counts with spending money for dealing with past rather than the future issues. The European Commission is well aware of the strategic importance of international trade and its support for future EU competitiveness and therefore it creates - on a long-term basis - preconditions for opening markets. The problem is utilization of such newly created space in a situation where the vast majority of the new markets suffer from unusual economic and political risks. The state support for exports, implemented through state budgets, may often lead to unwillingness of business entities to get involved in risky projects in these unknown and unfamiliar territories, thus waiving the opportunities given by EU. One of the potential solutions for this limitation could be the introduction of an institutional base at the EU level, to provide a complex assistance and support for exports from member countries, especially those less developed, particularly in the financial sector and also in the sector of economic information.