Towards a Confident Europe: Fostering European Foreign Policy as a Premise to Enhanced European Economic Security & Competitiveness

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 20180048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustin Ignatov

The present research comes to comprehensively analyse the path towards a confident Europe both in the regional and global environment by considering the necessity of European foreign policy consolidation as an imminent premise to enhanced European economic security & competitiveness. Despite of multiple competing political and economic interests, socio-cultural and linguistic heterogeneity, and historical animosities, the only choice of the European Union's nations to maintain and improve their current regional and global politico-economic positions resides in their capacity to act jointly through a unique representation. Accordingly, the results of the present research explicitly underline the idea that: as long as the “influence” centre of the European Union will be dispersed among national governments, each of them promoting individual interests contrary to the groups’ ones, the community as an integrational block will face important difficulties in defending its regional and global positions. The qualitative analysis undertaken highlights the idea that the European Union in the present form and institutional arrangements is not able to provide feasible and efficient solutions to the current and future challenges. This fact can be explicitly noted in the area of foreign affairs where the dualism between national and supranational bodies makes the European Union to falter on key directions including the Middle East, Eastern Partnership, the Russian Federation, and Turkey as well as on the global arena.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-131
Author(s):  
A. V. Toropygin

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Serbia — EAEU relations development through the prism of the Agreement on the Free Trade Area (FTA) — between the integration association and the separate economy / country. The purpose of this study is to identify the prospects of the FTA taking into account Serbia’s desire to integrate into the European Union. The author come to the conclusion that intensive interaction, primarily between Serbia and Russia through the FTA between Serbia and the EAEU, is explained, on the one hand, by Serbia’s multi-vector foreign policy, and, on the other hand, by Russia’s attentive attitude to the course of the conflict over Kosovo. Russia has economic interests in this region, as well as the region is people-related value for Russia within which it has used and will intensively utilize of soft power mechanisms.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Wallace

The European Union has declared ambitious objectives for a common European foreign policy since the end of the cold war. Through successive revisions of its constitutional treaties, it has built may of the institutions that might support such a common policy. Incremental changes and adaptation through experience of successive crises have strengthened practices of cooperation and consultation. Yet the retention of sovereignty over foreign and defence policy by national governments, and the unwillingness of national governments and parliaments to engage in any EU-wide reconsideration of strategic needs and objectives has left these common institutions without the permissive consensus needed to support effective shared action. National inhibitions about subordinating particular interests and assumptions to a wider European consensus have left the EU institutions without the ability either to promote shared European interests or to act effectively when those interests are threatened.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-79
Author(s):  
Nargiza Sodikova ◽  
◽  
◽  

Important aspects of French foreign policy and national interests in the modern time,France's position in international security and the specifics of foreign affairs with the United States and the European Union are revealed in this article


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 924-939
Author(s):  
V. A. Tsvetkov ◽  
K. Kh. Zoidov ◽  
K. S. Yankauskas ◽  
Sh. Kobil

The presented study comparatively analyzes indicators of the level of poverty and social inequality in Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the European Union (EU) as a criterion of national economic security.Aim. The study aims to examine existing approaches to determining the level of poverty and its dynamics and to consider suggestions for improving this methodology.Tasks. The authors examine and comparatively analyze approaches and methods for determining the level of poverty and its dynamics in the European Union and the CIS countries that are not members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).Methods. This study uses the methods of systems analysis, evolutionary-institutional theory, and historical approach.Results. Determining the level of poverty based on the number of citizens with incomes below the subsistence level can lead to misrepresentation of the actual state of this phenomenon. Calculation of poverty indicators based on consumer spending provides more accurate data on the level of poverty in a country where a significant share of the population’s income is generated by remittances from individuals living abroad, which are not reflected in official income statistics. A comparative analysis of poverty dynamics shows that in 2013 the level of poverty in all four examined countries decreased compared to 2006. Poverty dynamics in Russia and Belarus is more synchronized than in Ukraine and Moldova. A common methodology for calculating the level of poverty in all EU countries makes it possible to conduct a more thorough comparative analysis of poverty dynamics and to formulate more accurate recommendations in the field of anti-poverty policies. Based on the identified poverty dynamics in the EU and Russia, it is highly possible that strategic objectives on poverty reduction in the European Union and Russia will not be completed.Conclusions. To exclude the possibility of interested authorities influencing the dynamics of the poverty indicator by changing its threshold values depending on the current economic or political situation, it is necessary to switch to comprehensive assessment of this indicator in Russia. For comparative cross-country data analysis, it is advisable to consider the possibility of creating a Eurasian Statistics Service within the EAEU that would collect statistics and standardize statistical methods among the EAEU member states.


Author(s):  
K. Gylka

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 28 European countries. The population is 508 million people, 24 official and working languages and about 150 regional and minority languages. The origins of the European Union come from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), consisting of six states in 1951 - Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. These countries came together to put an end to the wars that devastated the European continent, and they agreed to share control over the natural resources needed for war (coal and steel). The founding members of ECSC have determined that this European project will not only be developed in order to share resources or to prevent various conflicts in the region. Thus, the Rome Treaty of 1957 created the European Economic Community (EEC), which strengthened the political and economic relations between the six founding states. The relevance of the topic stems from their desire of peoples and countries to live better. The purpose of the study is to identify the internal and external development mechanisms of European countries and, on this basis, to formulate a model of economic, legislative and social development for individual countries. The results of the study provide a practical guideline for determining the vector of the direction of efforts of political, economic, legislative, humanitarian, etc.


2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Ring ◽  
Roddy McKinnon

Across the European Union, national governments are re-assessing the institutional mechanisms through which pension provision is delivered. This articles sets the debate within the wider context of the ‘pillared’ structural analysis often adopted by international institutions when discussing pensions reform. It then sets out a detailed discussion of developments in the UK, arguing that the UK is moving towards a model of reform akin to that promoted by the World Bank – referred to here as ‘pillared-privatisation’. The themes of this model indicate more means-testing, greater private provision, and a shift of the burden of risk from the government to individuals. An assessment is then made of the implications of UK developments for other EU countries. It is suggested that while there are strong reasons to think that other countries will not travel as far down the road of ‘pillared-privatisation’ as the UK, this should not be taken as a ‘given’.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marysia Galbraith

The paper explores ways in which individuals make use of the opportunities and resources provided by the European Union (EU), and how such instrumentalities can make the concept of Europe more salient for citizens. This is important to European Union studies generally because careful observation and analysis of everyday engagements can help to reveal the basis upon which the EU gains legitimacy, or, alternatively, the grounds for resistance to further integration. Through an examination of Poles' experiences of mobility, and their reflections about crossing national borders to work and travel, the paper shows that instrumentality is not just motivated by economic interests, but also by the desire to advance culturally, socially and symbolically within a global imaginary of hierarchically ranked nations. As such, support for European integration tends to weaken in situations where ongoing inequalities and exclusions lead to perceptions of social demotion. Further, instrumentalities can deepen meaningful engagement with the EU in ways that also reassert national loyalties.


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