The Regional Economic Structure of the European Union: an Analysis of Long-Term Developments

Author(s):  
Willem Molle
2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (166) ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Predrag Petrovic

The intensity of foreign trade deficit and the dynamics of its growth from 2000 to 2004 suggest the need to give a special attention to the problem of competitiveness. It is a general opinion of professional public that the long-term competitiveness of a state and business cannot be generated from the current economic structure and, therefore, the structure of product export. Therefore, the solution to the problem is to be sought in restructuring the economy and the export offer, and adjusting it so that it meets the demand of the most important foreign trade partners. First of all there is the need to converge the product structure of export with the structure of foreign import, that is, the needs of the European Union. This is a consequence of the fact that this particular group of countries represents the most important destination of Serbian export, that is, that a little more than the half of the total product export is intended for these countries. This is exactly why it is necessary to establish a diagnosis of the degree of structural adequacy in terms of Serbia?s export to the European Union, and to provide a set of useful suggestions about how to find the cure.


Author(s):  
Yulia S. Chechikova

Digitization of a national cultural and scientific heritage is one of the long-term strategic problems of the European countries’ governments. Member countries of the European Union make major efforts in providing access to their cultural heritage. In the article the process of an access provision is described for Finland.


Author(s):  
Carlota Rigotti ◽  
Júlia Zomignani Barboza

Abstract The return of foreign fighters and their families to the European Union has mostly been considered a security threat by member States, which consequently adopt repressive measures aimed at providing an immediate, short-term response to this perceived threat. In addition to this strong-arm approach, reintegration strategies have also been used to prevent returnees from falling back into terrorism and to break down barriers of hostility between citizens in the long term. Amidst these different strategies, this paper seeks to identify which methods are most desirable for handling returnees.


Author(s):  
Serhii Horopakha

On 1st July 2013, the Republic of Croatia officially became the 28th member of the European Union. This event marked the fulfillment of a foreign policy goal, along with joining NATO in 2009, as a major step forward in the country’s long-term consolidation process. The article therefore analyzes the key events of the Croatia – EU relations in 2007-2008, which moved this Balkan country closer to implementing its Euro-integration course. Particular attention is paid to the peculiarities of the pre-accession negotiations with the European Union, as well as to internal and foreign policy factors that had a direct impact on the Euro-integration dialogue between Croatia and the European Union. In this context, emphasis is placed on problem issues that slowed down the dynamics of the negotiation process to a certain extent, in particular the unilateral application by Croatia of the Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone, and measures taken by the Croatian authorities to settle them. Significant achievements of Croatia in the negotiation process with the European Union are highlighted, in particular, progress of the country in meeting the European Union criteria as well as a date determination the of pre-accession negotiations completion as an important political sign of the European Union readiness to accept a new member in future.


Author(s):  
Michaela Staníčková ◽  
Lukáš Melecký

Regional development policies based on local potential triggers a shift in the economic structure of territories. Exogenous and endogenous factors determine potential of regional development and it is necessary to use different indicators and methods to its evaluation. For the paper purpose, it is required to define metropolitan and peripheral functions as well as urban areas in the form of geographic models, depicting their spatial distribution in the European Union (EU). Nowadays, regions are increasingly becoming the drivers of the economy. All regions possess development opportunities – however, use these options enough, and hence the competitiveness of regions must be efficient enough. The paper focuses on dividing the EU NUTS 2 regions based on geographic models of the European economy into efficient and inefficient ones and identifying an optimal benchmark for inefficient regions as a strategy for enhancing their economic structure to measure regional efforts and progress.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. e0104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raul Serrano ◽  
Nieves García-Casarejos ◽  
Salvador Gil-Pareja ◽  
Rafael Llorca-Vivero ◽  
Vicente Pinilla

<p>The objective of this study was to analyse, from a long-term perspective, the factors determining the process of the internationalisation of the Spanish agrifood industry. The paper concentrates on the empirical verification of the existence of a home market effect in the food and drink industries in Spain and on the effects on trade flows of integration into the European Union. With this aim in mind, we took into account the latest contributions to the estimation of the gravity equation for a sample of export flows from 13 agrifood subsectors between 1970 and 2012, with a destination of 175 markets. From the results of the study the existence of the “home market effect” stands out as the determining factor of the increasing process of internationalisation in the majority of the subsectors of the food industry. On this point, the presence of this effect is remarkable in the most dynamic industries, where the process of restructuring caused by the development of the internal market was more intense. Furthermore, the influence of the process of European integration has been shown by the literature to be a very important factor. Our results qualify in part the results of previous studies, since the positive effect appeared later than expected. The positive effects did not appear until the completion of the process of transition by the dismantling of the barriers established in the treaty of accession to the European Union.</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nenad Stanišić

This paper evaluates income convergence in the European Union, between “old” (EU15) and “new” member states from Central and East Europe (CEE10), and among the countries within these two groups. The GDP per capita convergence should be expected according to the exogenous economic growth model and neoclassical trade theory. The presence of σ-convergence and both absolute and conditional β-convergence is tested for on a sample of 25 European Union countries (EU25). Results confirm the existence of β-convergence of GDP per capita at purchasing power parity among EU25, but not among EU15 and CEE10 countries. σ-convergence has been confirmed among EU25 and CEE10 countries, while GDP per capita has been diverging in the EU15 group of countries. Moreover, the results reveal that recent economic crisis has reversed long-term tendencies and led to income convergence within EU15 and divergence within CEE10. During the crisis, the income differences among the EU25 countries have increased, but the scope and duration of this effect has been limited and has not affected the long term convergence path. However, the obtained long term speed of convergence is significantly lower compared with the previous researches.


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