Growth Effects of European Integration: Implications for EU Enlargement

Author(s):  
Jesús Crespo-Cuaresma ◽  
Maria Antoinette Dimitz ◽  
Doris Ritzberger-Grünwald
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 78-94
Author(s):  
Giorgio Oikonomou

The purpose of this study is to explore the evolution of EU administration by focusing and critically examining the role of EU agencies in advancing the European integration project. The research question deals with identifying the factors that account for the formulation of EU agencies and the reasons behind their sharp increase in numbers since the 2000s. The tasks are to analyse critical EU agencies’ parameters such as their typology, the policy area they deal with, origin of their resources and funding, and their output. In addition, transparency and accountability issues accompanying the proliferation of EU agencies are also considered. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of the European administration as expressed by the establishment of various types of agencies since 1975 thereafter. Methodologically, the research utilizes quantitative data based on annual EU budgets as well as official reports and policy papers issued by main EU institutions (European Commission, European Parliament, European Court of Auditors) and agencies, analyzing them from a historical perspective. As a result, it is argued that the proliferation of EU agencies has advanced the process of European integration, namely the EU enlargement and expansion in new policy areas following successive reforms of the Treaties. However, concerns regarding accountability and transparency issues remain in place.


2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-27
Author(s):  
Goran Nikolic

The most important part of the economic cooperation between Serbia and the EU, in addition to the inflow of foreign direct investments, loans, remittances (and donations), which predominantly come from the EU countries, is the exchange of goods and services. From 2000 there has been significant growth of trade between Serbia and the EU; merchandise exports and imports increased at double-digit rates over the past 16 and half years. In the same period, the share of EU in Serbian trade has not significantly changed, except for the effects of the three EU enlargement (2004, 2007, 2013), and is almost two-thirds. Having in mind that the countries of CEFTA, excluding Moldova, is likely to join the EU in the next decade, it is clear that the importance of trade with the EU would increase, at least nominally. In the last European Commission staff working document (2016) for Serbia is emphasized that the new government programme included Serbia's EU accession as a priority goal. Besides that, Serbia is only moderately prepared in the area of public administration reform. According to this report, Serbia will need to align its foreign and security policy progressively with the European Union's common foreign and security policy in the period up to accession. The EU is a key strategic partner of Serbia because of its huge global economic, technological and political significance. The EU is not just a very important partner, it is, in a way, a reference point for Serbia, as the modernization of the country, which is a natural priority for Serbian elites, is virtually inseparable from European integration and full membership in the EU.


2020 ◽  
pp. 803-821
Author(s):  
Andrii Hrubinko

The article presents the research findings on a set of challenges and threats to the national and international order that have arisen as a result of Brexit. As far as the author is concerned, Brexit has not only a significant conflict-generating impact on British realities but also causes tremendous challenges and threats to international security. The means of preventing and addressing these challenges are far from obvious and are yet to be fully developed. Most of the challenges, just like the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, have a negative impact on Ukraine’s international status and prospects in the global arena, particularly with regard to European integration and counter the Russian aggression. The regional, or all-European, implications of Brexit are manifested in rising Euroskepticism, pervasive disintegration (nationalist) sentiments in EU member states, heavy image losses of European integration in general and the EU in particular as its principal outcome, weakened abilities of the EU in the strategically important sphere of foreign and security policy, the slowdown in the fundamental process of EU enlargement, and a significant realignment of political forces in the union. The global implications of Brexit consist in the EU’s weakened international standing, the enhanced process of reviewing EU-US relations, a new, almost unprecedented, technological level of information propaganda, and a rapprochement of the EU and Russia. The historical and modern trends analysed permit a preliminary conclusion on who will ultimately benefit most from the completion of Brexit and the UK’s permanent withdrawal from the EU, which has become a part of the regional and global struggle for influence in international relations. Keywords: Brexit, Great Britain, European Union, European integration, conflict-generating potential, international relations.


2016 ◽  
pp. 122-131
Author(s):  
A. Martynov

The article considers the two vectors of the European integration process: closer integration among the EU member states and regionalization of the EU countries according to the criteria of close neighbourhood or deep cooperation. The author traces  development trends of regional cooperation of the EU member states at different stages of development of international relations i.e. the impact of the EU enlargement on regionalization process, competition and confrontation with Russia, the  complications in the field of European integration due to the negative outcome of the Dutch referendum on  ratification of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, as well as the British referendum on withdrawal from the EU. It is stressed that  the interregional cooperation  is particularly important at this critical stage  of European integration.


Author(s):  
Andreea Bucur

The European integration model has proven to be so far a successful one, with a high consideration from the other countries of the world and their attempts to replicate its components and to learn from its experience of regional integration is perhaps the most sincere form of appreciation. Contemporary global economy knows various other models of economic integration, but none of the existing forms of regional integration was not up to the achievements of the EU which is distinguished primarily by the stage reached and function and<br />its ability to create unity in the context of diversity. Irreversible process, and currently ongoing, and designed to produce positive results in perspective, the enlargement is one of the most significant factors of European construction success, always accompanying its history, marking the development, institutional structure, mode of cooperation and its policies. For these reasons, the present paper aims to approach the European integration model by the factors that influenced the enlargement and also by the course of events that are reflected in so-called “waves” of EU enlargement.


2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vedran Recher ◽  
Nataša Kurnoga

This paper examines the impact of EU enlargement and the global economic crisis on the relative development of the EU countries. This effect is assessed by applying multivariate analysis to the whole set of 28 European countries at three representative points in time. The cluster analysis for the years 2002, 2007, and 2012 grouped the countries according to the range of economic development indicators showing within-EU cohesion before the EU enlargement, after the enlargement wave, and after the crisis. The findings show that a decrease in the development differences after the enlargement was replaced with an increase in these differences after the crisis, thus contributing to the existing debate about the success of cohesion and future of European integration. These results are somewhat worrying for the new member states of the EU as well as for EU membership candidates and their prospective development within the integration.


Author(s):  
Michael Burgess

This chapter examines the relationship between federalism and European integration, with the goal of demonstrating the relevance of the federal idea to the building of Europe. It first clarifies some fundamental concepts such as federalism, federation, confederation, the modern state, and European integration. It then considers federalist theory and practice, along with three strands of federalism that emerged after the Second World War: Jean Monnet’s ‘federalism by instalments’, Altiero Spinelli’s ‘democratic radicalism’, and ‘integral’, ‘personalist’, or Proudhonian federalism. The chapter proceeds by exploring comparative federalism and the insights it provides on the future shape of the European Union, the implications of liberal intergovernmentalism for federalism, and the ramifications of the evolution of the EU Constitution for federalism. Finally, it assesses the questions that the challenge of EU enlargement poses for federalism and the federalists.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Andrzej Cieślik ◽  
Mehmet Burak Turgut

In this paper, we study the growth effects of the 2004 Eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU) using the synthetic control method. We estimate that this EU enlargement had an immediate but modest positive impact on the economic growth of the EU-8 countries in the first few years following their EU accession. The positive impact of the EU enlargement became more apparent from 2007 when the new EU member states were admitted into the Schengen zone. As a result, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita difference between the actual and synthetic EU-8 continued to grow towards the end of the sample period. We found that over the entire 2004–2012 period, GDP per capita of the EU-8 was increased by about 2313 USD per year on average relative to the synthetic EU-8. The growth rate of the GDP per capita in the actual EU-8 for the same period was 2.7% larger than the synthetic EU-8.


1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1537-1557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Henrekson ◽  
Johan Torstensson ◽  
Rasha Torstensson

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