European Union Priorities Research Articles

How will the EU Approach the BRIC Countries? Future Trade Challenges

This paper aims at understanding the potential of partnerships of the European Union (EU) with emergent global actors (the so-called new leading powers (NLP) or BRIC countries1), focusing on international trade law and policy. Although the power base of these actors (Brazil, Russia, India, and China – the BRIC countries) is their respective region (South America for the case of Brazil, Eastern Europe for Russia, the Subcontinent for India, and the Far East for China),2 there may be specific policy areas in which their influence might be global.3 With this in mind, the paper raises interesting questions: is the EU an attractive trade partner for the new leading powers? Does the EU want cooperation with the BRIC countries? What can the EU expect from cooperation with the BRIC countries? What are the characteristics of these partners? What are the EU's priorities in its foreign trade policy? With which partners should the EU cooperate in which policy areas? With which instruments can the EU engage these partners and how can the EU internal coordination be ensured?

Public health and epidemiological research: a blind spot among the European Union priorities?

Public health and epidemiological research: a blind spot among the European Union priorities?

EU enlargement from the Polish perspective

The article presents the issue of Poland's integration with the European Union (EU) in a historical perspective and highlights the current problems of combining the parallel processes of transformation (political, economic and social) and integration with the EU. The example of the Polish ancestors of the European movement are mentioned as well as the struggle to regain a place in the united Europe, from which Poland was cut off as a result of the Yalta Agreement. It is stressed that there is no alternative to economic integration with the EU - as the deep trade diversion after 1989 has shown. The eastern enlargement of the EU will create a large zone of economic stability in Europe, from which western business has already been benefiting, as data on foreign direct investment (FDI) and Poland's huge balance of trade deficit with the EU show. The free (with some exceptions) movement of goods between parties resulting from the Europe Agreement has helped to create new jobs in the EU (especially in Germany, the main trading partner). The strategic goal of security was attained by joining NATO in spring 1999, transatlantic integration being the strongest guarantee of European security as the Yugoslav crisis has shown. EU membership is a much more demanding task than association. It requires a candidate country, still in the process of transition, taking on board the whole body of the acquis communautaire. On the EU side, it will mean transfers from the EU budget of the maximum amounts limited to 4 per cent of the beneficiary's GDP, as Agenda 2000 envisages. The transfers depend on new trends in common policies. The article stresses that approximation of legislation is difficult as the EU acquis is itself in the process of constant change ('a moving target in the fog', as one British author put it). There is a risk that too rapid implementation may lead to losing the momentum of the Polish economy's dynamic growth in a time of growing global interdependence. The greatest obstacles on the EU side may be those of a financial nature. The article stresses that, while the costs of enlargement are public (borne by the EU budget), the benefits are private as they are gained by the businesses already in the region. The EU's eastern enlargement is a difficult task owing to large disparities (in terms of GDP per capita, legislation, infrastructure). The greatest danger, however, may be that the issue has slipped down the agenda of EU priorities with the new political coalitions in power. The spirit of Jean Monnet is missing in Europe.

The European Investment Bank, transport investment and European Union objectives: an exploratory analysis

Although for over 30 years the European Investment Bank (EIB) has provided large-scale funding for transport infrastructure, its activities in this sphere have not been researched. Working primarily through analyses of European Union (EU) documentation, and of more than 700 transport-related loans made by the Bank between 1986 and 1992, this paper provides insights into the structure of this investment; into the mechanisms which have evolved to sustain its continued growth; and into its relationships to EU priorities for the transport sector. Models of EIB clients are proposed, and it is demonstrated that in the majority of the EU periphery a limited number of ‘dominant’ clients have been essential to the impressive expansion of EIB activity. It is also shown that EIB funding coincides only partially with current EU priorities. Although this divergence can in part be considered more apparent than real (in that it is related to data interpretation issues) it is argued that it is primarily a consequence of the Bank's terms of reference and of its independence of the main Commission bureaucracy. Research opportunities identified include the need for further investigations into the processes of EIB transport-sector investment and its impact.