More than a year has passed since the beginning of the political uprising against the authoritarian regimes in the Arab world. But, as demonstrated by the recent dramatic developments in Syria, the process is far from over. Meanwhile nations which have already freed themselves from their...

The European Union (EU) represents a large and highly integrated bloc which contributed 19.4% of global GDP and over 30% of global exports in 2012. As of July 1, 2013 it consists of 28 member states. All of them belong to the customs union and the Single European Market (SEM) in which most...

This report provides estimates of the VAT Gap for 26 EU Member States for 2012, as well as revised estimates for the period 2009-2011. It is a follow-up to the report “Study to quantify and analyse the VAT Gap in the EU-27 Member States”,1 published in September 2013. This update...

The first aim of this paper is to describe the main developments in the Ukrainian economy since its independence in 1991, focusing on the evolution of output, and the path of economic reforms — that is, to simply show what happened. The bottom line on that is well known: Ukraine’s economy...

Initiatives and agreements between EU and Mediterranean countries aimed at establishing a free trade area. Indeed there has been a liberalization of trade in the last 10 years creating new trade flows, but trade integration still has to be developed further in order to make substantial...

Since the beginning of the 1990s, demographic, economic and social changes occurring in Russia and Ukraine have had an impact on both labour markets and social conditions. Even though some of the social safety net changes introduced at the beginning of the 21st century have brought positive...

The financial crisis strongly affected the countries of the former Soviet Union1 (FSU) in 2008-2009. All of the countries experienced either a recession or a considerable slowdown in growth. Under such conditions, public expenditures on health were at risk of being cut. This brief explores...

Though the global financial crisis hit Russia’s economy harder than many other emerging markets, the situation in both Russia’s real and financial sector stabilized as early as in the first half of 2009. However, the exit strategy chosen by the Russian authorities lacked any specific...

The public debt crisis is not limited to Greece or to the Euro area but includes several developed economies. Thus, suggesting that the Eurozone is undergoing a currency crisis or is in danger of disintegration is not the right diagnosis. However, if prudent fiscal policies, fiscal discipline...