Ekonomski Pogledi (Jan 2015)
Alternative Serbian association to the European Union: The view to two possible way
Abstract
The main strategic goal and foreign policy priority of Republic of Serbia, from 2000 onwards, is membership of the European Union. Striving to achieve the set objective was strongly supported by majority of Serbian citizens. However, Serbia has never encouraged broad internal discussion about potential advantages and/or disadvantages of thus established state policy. Even a attempt to check costs and benefits of membership of EU is sharply proclaimed as a regress of Serbia to nineties, chaos and hopelessness. 'Non-alternatives' policy of European path is as a rule accompanied by the lack of expert analysis on validity of EU alternatives. We find, in above written facts, scientific and social justification also of undertaking research on, primarily, the existence of alternative for 'Europe', and then their feasibility in Serbian context. The authors of this paper presents the results of the economic analysis of strategic shift of Serbia towards two mutually overlapping directions of external economic relations: a) Increased economic cooperation and foreign direct investment from BRICS countries; b) Serbia's accession to the European Economic Area. The paper examines two focal questions: Is it shifting to BRICS countries a valid alternative to European path of Serbia? Second, whether Serbian prospective membership of European Economic Area provides economic benefits, similar to those in political and economic membership in EU. Intellectual ignorance of the BRICS and the need of explanation of this multilateral diplomatic process, imposes answers on two corrective questions: what is BRICS actually and what are the areas of their cooperation. The genesis and the current state of the European Economic Area will also be explained in order to obtain better understanding of the Serbian position towards that institutional arrangement. Finally, the main goal of the research is to check is it justified for Serbia to give up its European path, bearing in mind offered and analyzed alternatives.
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