IMPACT OF EASTERN PARTNERSHIP ON THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF GEORGIA AND UKRAINE

This paper aims at reflecting upon the EU potential as a transformative power in the Eastern countries, taking Georgia and Ukraine as case studies. Starting from a series of analyses of statistical data on the current economic situation of these countries (including the effects of the global financial crisis), we try to identify EU’s impact on promoting economic development, stability and better governance, the role of association agreements, free trade areas, visa liberalization, additional cooperation in a variety of fields and increased technical assistance.In the context of the Europe 2020 strategy, we also try to investigate how effective the application of conditionality was and to answer whether the EU membership prospect is able to promote reforms in the analyzed countries. The paper concludes with a forecast of the future challenging Eastern enlargement of the EU.