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The European Union at 50
Legend: our own calculations and projections from Stiftung Entwicklung, 1996,
and Hallett, 1994
The effect of the Europe-agreements between the EU and the countries of
Eastern Europe seem to repeat the experience of Lomé and can be summarized
in one word: a massive positive balance of trade in favor of the Union and to the
detriment of the partners in the East that leads to political and economic friction
(Hickman, 1994; Inotai, 1993). It is shown in this chapter that Lomé indeed is
such a negative experience on the level of the LDCs. A growing number of
academic critics of present Union economic policy maintain that the EU-approach
to foreign trade and relations with the semi-periphery and the periphery is based
on two fatally erroneous assumptions. First, the gradualism of trade
liberalization; second, the protectionist answer to the current economic
malaise in Western Europe. The transformation process of the East would be
supported efficiently only, if the East could expand rapidly its exports in those
areas where the East has a comparative advantage - agriculture, steel, textiles
and clothing. But precisely such sectors are protected by the EU. The agreements
reached up to now reflect the outdated and orthodox EU trade policy, designed in
the late 1950s. The situation of the East is made all the more difficult, because
there is no Western European willingness to make major concessions in other
areas, most notably migration, partly a consequence of deteriorating external
economic relations, partly a consequence of rising internal inequalities.
Samir Amin (1994) puts a heavy blame on the Europeans for prolonging the
underdevelopment and stagnation of their own 'backyards'. A look at the UNDP
1996 data about the European inner and outer periphery in comparison to the
European leading economy Germany confirms this dire hypothesis. Germany is
under a desperate pressure to redress the negative current account balance, and
to have high export surpluses again:
Sub-Saharan Africa - Arab States Eastern Europe Germany
life expectancy 50.9 62.1 69.2 76.1
real GDP in $ PPP 1288 4513 4164 18840
human development index 0.379 0.633 0.773 0.920
gender related devel. index 0.366 0.513 - 0.883
gender empowerment index 0.366 0.513 - 0.654
millions without health s. 205 36 - -
illiterate adults in millions 121 59 2 -
million malnourished chil-
dren under 5 years 22,5 3,1 0,475 -
% low birth-weight infants 16% 12% 7% -
Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar · CAEI Arno Tausch / 159