scholarly journals Knocking On The EU's Door: The Political Economy of EU-Ukraine Relations

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-78
Author(s):  
Marco Montanari

The EU has recently launched the European Neighbourhood Policy, aimed at fostering integration with countries located close to its borders. This article proposes a liberal intergovernmentalist framework for the analysis of Ukraine's prospects of integration with the EU and apply it to evaluate the main economic and political benefits and costs associated to three possible scenarios: free trade area, fully developed European Neighbourhood Policy and EU accession. Two main conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, gains from integration would be asymmetrically distributed and would mostly accrue to Ukraine, whilst the main obstacles to integration would not be economic, but political. Secondly, the European Neighbourhood Policy does not represent a credible long-term alternative to EU membership for Ukraine; thus the outcome of the integration process should probably consist either in the mere creation of a free trade area or in EU accession.

Ekonomia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Adriana Kalicka-Mikołajczyk

Deepen and congeneric free trade area — a new form of business collaboration of the European Union with its neighbours from Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus within the European Neighbourhood Policy The European Neighbourhood Policy ENP was developed in 2004, with the objective of avoiding of new dividing lines between the enlarged EU and its neighbours and strengthening the prosperity, stability and security of all participants. Within the ENP the European Union offers its neighbours a privileged relationship building upon a mutual commitment to common values, political association and deeper economic integration. The ENP links partner countries with the EU’s internal market and its social and economic model. For partners, this means adopting basic rules on equal opportunities, economic participation and fair competition. The ENP builds upon the legal agreements in place between the EU and the partner countries: Partnership and Cooperation Agreements or Association Agreements. Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova signed Association Agreements with the EU on 27 June 2014. The deep and comprehensive free trade agreement is part of a new generation of Association Agreements with eastern partner countries which provides a long-term foundation for future economic relations with the European Union. It was agreed that Association Agreement should take an ambitious and innovative approach, include a deep and comprehensive free trade area and go qualitatively beyond the current Partnership and Cooperation Agreement wherever possible. It contains binding, rule-based provisions and cooperation developed further than in traditional agreements and it is wide-ranging, covering all areas of interest. The deep and comprehensive free trade area is part of the Association Agreement which offer a new framework for modernising partner countries trade relations and for economic development by the opening of markets via the progressive removal of customs tariffs and quotas, and by an extensive harmonisation of laws, norms and regulations in various trade-related sectors, creating the conditions for aligning key sectors of the eastern partners economy to European Union standards. The deep and comprehensive free trade areas are expected to bring many economic benefits for Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine by offering businesses access to the EU’s single market — the largest in the world.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-89
Author(s):  
Taras Kepych

AbstractThe paper reviews the achievements to date in legal approximation in the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) field in Ukraine. Effective regulatory approximation in the SPS field was critical to anchoring the reform process in Ukraine and to fostering further progress in EU’s relations with this Eastern Partnership (EaP) country. This paper highlights three major problems in Ukraine that were hindering reform in the SPS field: inconsistency between Ukrainian and EU food safety legislation, lack of uniformity between animal health law regimes, absence of a single SPS regulator. Legal implementation of approximated legislation still remains as key challenge. The paper offers recommendations to improve the Ukraine’s approach so that the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) is part of the Association Agreement (AA) between the EU and the Republic of Ukraine could fulfill its potential.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Collins

Regionalism—the efforts of a group of nations to enhance their economic, political, social, and cultural interaction—can assume various forms, including regional integration/cooperation, market integration, development integration, with the intent of accommodating the changing national, international, and regional environment. Despite the fact that to this day, attempts at integration (in particular, market integration based on the EU model) and regionalist impulses as they currently occur have been entirely unproductive throughout the African continent, regionalism continues to be regarded by African leaders as a reasonable strategy for increasing intra-regional trade and for reversing Africa’s rising marginalization in the world economy. They continue to be assured by the success of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the viability of the European Union’s (EU) model for integration, which begins with a free trade area or preferential trade area and ends with complete economic integration. The EU model features a specific mode of decision making (qualified majority voting), conflict resolution mechanism (role of the European Court of Justice), budgetary arrangements (revenue collection and distribution), and citizen involvement (direct elections to the European Parliament) and takes on increasingly state-like functions. While extremely successful in integrating its constituent member state in Europe, as a model it is limited, given the unique circumstances under which it was established and promoted. As noted by Emil Kirchner: Consideration of the EU as a model for other regional integration settings might be limited, given the unique circumstances in which it was established and promoted. Born out of conflict, the EU benefited from special circumstances in its development, e.g. the Cold War, the United States guarantee and nurturing role, and the industrialised nature of the European economies, which are not found elsewhere.


Author(s):  
Francesco Seatzu

Although compelled by both political and trade necessities, negotiations for the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (EMFTA) have been problematic and lengthy. This free trade area is to encompass the countries around the Mediterranean, including non-EU member countries, and it was foreseen in the 1995 Barcelona Declaration as one of the key elements of the Euro Mediterranean Partnership (EMP). After over fifteen years of negotiations and the creation of closer commercial relations between EU Member States and the states of the southern side of the Mediterranean through the conclusion of several Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements (AAs) and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) between 1998 and 2012‏, there is a lot at stake for the EU and the MPCs in the results of these deliberations. This work aims to examine these issues, with particular reference to the most recent progress, if any, made in the decade long negotiation process of EMFTA, and seeks to identify the best way forward.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.K.M. Nurul Hossain ◽  
Mohammad Abdul Munim Joarder

Purpose – The authors considered three regional trading agreements (RTAs): European Union (EU-25), ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), and South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) to test the hypothesis that poor members within a RTA catch rich members and thereby follow the path of income convergence. Of particular interest is to test whether partial openness (i.e. formation of RTAs) or openness or political conditions are conducive to economic growth among the member countries of RTAs. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used pooled datasets from three different RTAs, namely the EU-25, the AFTA, and the SAFTA. Taking five years average for all variables, starting from 1961 to 1965 and extending to 2001-2005, the authors tested the hypothesis that the growth rate of per capita GDP is negatively related to the initial level of per capita GDP. Constructing a dynamic behavioral equation and forming the reduced form equation, the authors calculated the s-convergence, and both conditional and unconditional convergence. Findings – The authors found that both the EU-25 and the AFTA exhibit s-convergence, and both conditional and unconditional convergence, while the reverse evidence was observed in the case of the SAFTA. However, the speed of convergence of the AFTA was found to be much higher than that of the EU-25. Originality/value – Formation of RTA by countries should be considered as an essential condition to achieve sustained economic growth. In addition, political rights, trade openness, and more importantly benevolence of the member countries within the RTA must be shown to sustain economic growth and convergence; otherwise with the passage of time, divergence among the RTA members will be evident.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Asiedu

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused nontrivial disruptions to global value chains and affected the lives of many people, particularly the poor across the world. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early part of 2020 in Africa, happened during a time that African countries had just signed one of the world’s largest trade agreements and therefore began introducing continental-level structures to strengthen free trade among member states. This chapter examines the potential effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agenda for free trade in Africa, both in the short and in the long-term. Specifically, the chapter explores the trading environment of firms in Africa and highlights generally the challenges faced when implementing a trade agreement in the middle of a pandemic. It also, on the other hand, highlights how trade agreement in a middle of a pandemic can be a good thing to minimize the effect of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable households in Africa. The chapter ends by highlighting the need for managing the COVID-19 pandemic to grow and sustain intra-African trade.


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