engleski

Regional integration in South-East Europe

In the past 20-30 years the term globalization has taken hold to denote the processes of changes and economic, social, technological, cultural and political integration of countries. In economic terms, globalization means formulating the rules of a single world market in order to stimulate competition and development. However, experience shows that globalization can have the opposite effect, i.e. it can stifle development and competition, since it enables big companies to use their substantial capital to capture new markets and prevent the development of competitors. The process of globalization started back in 16th century, with the first marked expansion of European capitalism ; the waves of expansion were particularly noticeable in the late 19th century and after the Second World War. In contrast, the interval between the two wars was the period of explicit protectionism, with the USA and Germany at its forefront. Since 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and demise of socialist planned economy, the process of globalization, or liberalization of international trade, has been expanding continuously. It is fair to say that it has benefited both the developed and developing countries. Nevertheless, in the past ten years momentum was lost for global trade under the aegis of the WTO, and regional trading blocks (currently around twenty in the world) have been gaining in significance. They range from free trade zones, customs unions, to common and single markets.

Globalization; EU; transition; regional integration; CEFTA

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