Can and Should the EU's Eastern Partnership Be Saved?

38 Pages Posted: 22 Jul 2014

See all articles by Thorvaldur Gylfason

Thorvaldur Gylfason

University of Iceland - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) - School of Law, Economics, Social Sciences; Jaume I University - Department of Economics

Per Magnus Wijkman

University of Gothenburg

Date Written: July 22, 2014

Abstract

In a major setback for the EU, only two of four Eastern Partnership countries actually initialed Association Agreements at the Vilnius Summit in November 2013. This paper asks what went wrong and what can be done about it. Using a gravity model to estimate the effects of deep and shallow free trade agreements for the Eastern Partnership states with Russia and the EU, the paper shows that the Eastern Partnership countries, including Ukraine, by far the largest in the group, gain significantly from free trade agreements with the EU, but gain little if anything from free trade agreements with Russia.

Keywords: free trade agreements, Eastern Partnership, European Union

JEL Classification: F140, F510, F530

Suggested Citation

Gylfason, Thorvaldur and Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada and Wijkman, Per Magnus, Can and Should the EU's Eastern Partnership Be Saved? (July 22, 2014). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 4869, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2469729 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2469729

Thorvaldur Gylfason (Contact Author)

University of Iceland - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration ( email )

IS-101 Reykjavik
Iceland
+354 525 4533/00 (Phone)
+354 552 6806 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.hi.is/~gylfason/inenglish.htm)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) - School of Law, Economics, Social Sciences ( email )

Germany

Jaume I University - Department of Economics ( email )

Campus del Riu Sec.
E-12071 Castellon
Spain

Per Magnus Wijkman

University of Gothenburg ( email )

Göteborg
Sweden

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