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The paper deals with the idea that EU has to reformate as a result of the latest challenges, including the Brexit. A possible effect and opportunity from this can be a stronger position for the EU Balkan Member States. The analysis in the paper takes into consideration all Balkan economies, including candidate countries in order to obtain a general approach for the region. This approach is new because it puts together member and candidate members from a region, in the context of re-evaluating the EU, and leads to the idea of finding a regional leader able to generate regional progress and to support the region's interests in the European Institutions. The analysis covers five representative economic indicators (GDP growth rate, gross fixed capital formation, unemployment rate, inflation rate and general government gross debt) and is realized on three levels: a comparative analyses, a cluster analysis, and a cumulative analysis as well. Moreover, regression is used in order to point out the economic disparities across the region. The main conclusion of the analysis is that the great regional economic disparities can be decrease using common regional policies. Moreover, the analysis identifies a regional economic leader able to coordinate common initiatives at least on short and medium terms. The analysis and the conclusions in the paper are supported by the latest official statistic data, pertinent tables and diagrams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper focuses on the analysis of the convergence indicators relative to fiscal area in the EU; subsequent to a description of the main peculiarities of the convergence criteria, the reseach develops a critical analysis on a comparative perspective of the actual values of fiscal convergence indicators registered in EU countries compared with the reference values of the indicators, with emphasis on the differences between emerging and developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1990s, when the break-up of the soviet bloc spread to the Balkans, dominant neoliberal economic wisdom recommended swift privatization of public assets, deregulation, and dismantling of the social safety net. Building upon the research of one of neoliberalism's leading architects, this paper examines why enacting neoliberal economic and social policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina have led to outcomes contrary to those predicted by traditional neoliberal theory. We conclude by offering five policy recommendations that should, when enacted, reduce market distortions and yield significant economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten European countries with economies in transition and two market economies are negotiating full membership with the European Union. This paper considers the economic dimension of the forthcoming enlargement of the European Union, especially on the characteristics of the economies in transition and on the economic implications of the enlargement for European Union agriculture. The transition of the central and eastern European countries from a centrally planned to a market economy, although already in progress for a decade, is far from complete. Uneven macroeconomic developments in the various countries can be attributed to some extent to their individual situation at the start of the transformation. However, they also reflect the varying extent to which institutional reform programs have been implemented in these countries. (JEL F15, O52, E63, Q18) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the fiscal policies implemented in the European Union countries since the beginning of the current crisis. With this aim in mind we have analyzed separately the expansionary fiscal policies implemented at the first stage of the crisis and the fiscal consolidation policies that became widespread at the beginning of the current decade. Studying the content of the national fiscal policies (discretionary measures versus built-in stabilizers, revenue- based versus expenditure-based fiscal policies, the relationship existing between the size of the fiscal impulses-adjustments and the composition of these measures) shows the significant differences between the fiscal policies implemented in the European Union countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the impact on the euro area economy of the ECB's non-standard monetary policy measures by studying the effect of the expansion of intermediation of interbank transactions across the central bank balance sheet. We exploit data drawn from the aggregated Monetary and Financial Institutions (MFI) balance sheet, which allow us to construct a measure of the 'policy shock' represented by the ECB's increasing role as a financial intermediary. We find small but significant effects on both loans and real economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on international institutions argues that membership regularizes expectations about members' future behavior. Using the accession of the postcommunist countries as a test case, this article argues that the EU can send strong signals to financial markets about the trajectory of a particular country. Examining spreads on sovereign debt from 1990 to 2006, this article shows that closing negotiation chapters on domestic economic policy—in other words, receiving a seal of approval from Brussels that previously existing policy reform is acceptable to the wider EU—substantially decreases perceptions of default risk in those countries. That decrease operates independently from policy reform that the country has taken and is also distinct from selection processes (modeled here with new variables, including UNESCO World Heritage sites and domestic movie production, that proxy for cultural factors). Thus, this particular international organization has played an important role in coordinating market sentiment on members, conferring confidence that policy reform alone could not accomplish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should Europe imitate the U.S. economic model? This European economist answers with a definitive no. The idea of Europe is alive and well, but it requires serious public investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public support for the project of European unification and the EU's influence in the world depend primarily on Europe's economic success. Europe is one of the richest regions in the world and this wealth appeals above all to its poorer neighbors. At the same time, Europe has also been one of the poorest-performing regions in terms of growth, which limits its ability both to exert influence overseas and to satisfy its citizens, particularly because unemployment and inequality have increased in the course of the integration process. Six years after the adoption of the Lisbon Strategy, then, the German council presidency faces the challenge of boosting Europe's economic dynamism. The EU's economic and social policy must resolutely pursue growth opportunities. It must therefore put an end to its strategy of cost and income reduction, driven by a senseless logic of competitiveness, in favor of a continuous increase in internal demand. The Lisbon Strategy - which in the meantime we can say has already failed - also pursues this logic and relies extensively on such supply-side goals as higher employment rates. In contrast, the EU needs a coordinated economic policy in which monetary policy is not exclusively directed towards stability, and with more public investment in innovative industries and a continuing expansion of consumption. In the case of Europe-wide imbalances between savings and investment, public investment should also be credit financed. The European social model strives towards a balance which must be protected from extreme and senseless competition. That applies both internally, through appropriate regulation of the internal market, and also externally, through corresponding initiatives in international trade, currency, social, and monetary policy. Europe's prosperity will be ensured by energetic support of up-and-coming industries. That means that the EU budget requires not so much the preservation of declining industries and regions as modernization. For example, there should be more investment in research and development and in education. At the same time, security of supply will be enhanced by a consistent strategy of energy saving and use of renewable energy. Long-term unprofitable branches and enterprises in sectors such as agriculture or textiles and clothing can be wound down in a controlled and socially responsible way. Various reforms and the pressure towards ever more open markets have improved the supply-side. Higher productivity, rising profits and the pressure on workers to accept worse working conditions must be accompanied by firm support for demand if the economy is not to end up in stagnation and impoverishment. Europe needs a coordinated monetary, fiscal and incomes policy which, particularly in the new, poorer member states, tolerates higher inflation rates and real appreciation in order to accelerate their catch-up processes and to improve consumption opportunities instead of taking inflation rates as an excuse to deny them euro entry. While the EU strongly opposes subsidizing enterprises on social or regional-policy grounds it allows member states to subsidize their enterprises in real terms through low taxes and wages. This tax competition can be countered, as a first step, by harmonizing the rules defining the tax base. Wage competition must be combated through regulations on the minimum wage which ensure every worker an income which is fair in relation to where they actually work and permits a decent standard of living. One-sided market integration penalizes social arrangements which favor more leisure time and public goods, and at the same time propagates income differentials, resulting in weaker mass purchasing power and subsequent underemployment. Growth and prosperity in Europe require supply-side productivity increases which are to be expected above all from specialization in the enlarged market and public provision of education and research.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]