REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND REGIONAL COOPERATION
Oleksiy Plotnikov,
Member of Parliament of Ukraine,
Head of Subcommittee for International Economic Policy,
Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) of Ukraine;
Professor, Head of Department,
Institute of World Economy and International Relations
of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
REGIONAL INTEGRATION OF UKRAINE IN THE CONDITIONS
OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS
Abstract
Problems of Ukraine’s regional integration in the current financial crisis conditions
are under review. Characteristics are given to the impact the world financial crisis has
on development of Ukraine’s economy. Distinguished are the peculiarities of the state’s
European integration processes, including the perspective creation of a free trade zone
with the EU.
Key words: world financial crisis; regional integration; Ukraine; European integration;
economic growth; gross domestic product.
INTRODUCTION
Problems of regional integration are extremely important for the nowadays development
of the Ukraine’s country and determination of its place in the world. The world financial
crisis is a real explosion for both the developed countries and the economies in transition.
National economic and political disturbances taking place in Ukraine make the situation
in the country anything but simple. Ukraine is not only geographically a European
country. There is no need to prove its European identity from the historical, economic and
political perspective. Unfortunately, at this point there is still no clear signal from the EU
as for the perspective of Ukraine’s membership, including terms and conditions of such
membership.
1. World financial crisis and developments in Ukraine
Evolution of the world financial crisis 2008-2009 cannot but engage Ukraine. The point is
also that as well as during the world financial crisis 1997-1998 Ukraine has a lot of its own
aggravators in the form of the internal economic and political crises.
When estimating the current world financial crisis one can already make a conclusion
that it makes the most serious and large-scale breakdown since studies of crises by the
international economic science began. Traditionally, economic theory tracks the beginning
of economic crises to 1825. But even the so called Great Depression 1929-1933, by both its
intensity and consequences, now lags behind the crisis set to break out in 2008. As long as
the Great Depression was characterized by an unprecedented fall in industrial production
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