Policy-Making: EU trade links with developing neighbours: the case of SEECs, CEECs and the Mediterranean countries

Abstract

European countries export a large portion of their manufactured goods to developing countries. Among these, the countries of the southern region of the Mediterranean Sea (MED or MED12s in Eurostat terminology), which represent a natural outlet given their geographical proximity, have always had a prominent role. From the beginning of the 1990s, however, the EU (and especially Italy) has also increased its commercial exchanges with the countries of South-Eastern Europe (SEECs) and those of Centre-Eastern Europe (CEECs). In these countries, which are also geographically close, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Comecon, an important process of internal economic liberalization has been under way. In particular, what is relevant for the present purposes is that integration and the opening toward foreign countries has increased and, in a few years, this has radically modified the structure of commercial flows. Changes in the economic structure and in the political situation, particularly in the case of the SEECs, have improved the potential for growth of these countries. Progress in political and economic areas—liberalization of the financial sector, opening of a capital market, trade liberalization—although still under way, allows a more efficient allocation of both human and financial resources and favours economic development, thereby increasing the potential for growth. At the same time, the potential for growth of the MED countries is also in principle high. GDP growth rates in recent years have consistently been larger than those of industrial countries and demographic trends and per capita