REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

CEFTA-2006 TRADE COOPERATION
between 13-29% of the Gross Material Product (European Commission, 2006, p.39). It
was shown that in the 1990s history induced trade diversion to the Region and for many
SEE countries other country “in the group” was not important trading partner (Sekulovska-
Gaber 2003, p.300).
Attempts to revive economic integration in the region only gained momentum after the
end of the Kosovo War with the creation of the Stability Pact for SEE in 1999. Hence, the
recent adoption of the more acceptable term of “South East Europe”, to replace the charged
term “Balkans”, guided by the EU, managed to come up with a more consistent regional
policy, based on the SAP, financial assistance and a reassured political presence in the
region. In accordance with the Stability Pact’s “Memorandum of Understanding on Trade
Facilitation and Liberalization”, as the most prominent regional initiative involving SEE, a
free trade area in the Region of SEE through the CEFTA agreement was established.
The analysis showed that this free trade agreement which started operating in January 2007
already shows positive results, since trade volumes exchanged between the neighbours
appear to be increasing. So, the lastly signed CEFTA-2006 agreement finally started
promoting regional cooperation between the neighbours. The same conclusion could be
drown when the geographical concentration of imports and exports of the Republic of
Macedonia are computed. In other words, since those coefficients diminished in 2006 and
2007 in comparison with the period 2000-2004, it might be concluded that the neighbours
of the Republic of Macedonia, after signing the CEFTA-2006 agreement, started to come
back.
On the other hand, the results from the analysis of the latest level of openness of each of
the economies in question showed mild openness, present only in the case of Macedonia,
which means that the actual exploitation of the opportunities given by the agreement is far
below the real potential of the Region. Thus, in the long run, in order to be truly globalizing
nations, SEE countries need to increase their exports substantially.
And finally, concerning the potential for cooperation in the region of Southeast Europe, no
matter the limits, it is expected that the mentioned measures will be important, not only
for development of joint trade relations, attracting foreign direct investment and fostering
intra-regional trade, but especially for further integrating the region into the global trading
environment. Since the gradual implementation of a free trade area and the harmonization
of national legislation with EU standards are part of the already signed SAAs, regional
cooperation could also help facilitation and acceleration of the process of integrating the
Region with the EU countries. Furthermore, this can be a clear signal of the commitment
of the SEE countries towards their EU membership.
REFERENCES
Atanassova Roumiana (2006), Southeast Europe Economic Development and Trade Links
in 3 rd International Conference: Regional Economic Cooperation in South Eastern Europe,
May 11-14, 2006, Bankya, Bulgaria, pp.173-188.
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