Estonian Investment Relations with the Eastern Partnership Countries
Analytical overview ESTONIAN INVESTMENT RELATIONS WITH THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP COUNTRIES Raul Mälk, Senior Research Fellow, ECEAP 1. EU FDI IN EASTERN PARTNERSHIP COUNTRIES After ten years of Eastern Partnership (EaP), it is possible to say that the investments flow between the EU and Partnership countries is still rather limited1. The potential for investments has not yet been fully used. Looking forwards to post-2020, it is clear that further progress in investments is one of the crucial elements of the development of the EaP and relations with the partner countries. The European Union has concluded Association Agreements and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Membership in the Eurasian Economic Union affects EU economic relations with Armenia and Belarus. Investment activity between EU and the six Eastern Partnership countries has been influenced during the past decade by the global economic crisis, political tensions including the Russian war against Ukraine from 2014, Armenia-Azerbaijan war in 2020, the business climate and the problems with the rule of law in six countries. In the World Bank’s Ease of doing business index, the six EaP countries have improved their standings – Georgia is now (surprisingly) 7th, Azerbaidjan 34th, Armenia 47th, Moldova 48th, Belarus 49th and Ukraine 64th among 190 economies. For comparison, Estonia is 18th, Poland 40th, Hungary 52nd and Romania 55th2. However, despite such high rankings, the economic progress is still modest, and the living standards in most of the EaP countries are relatively low. The indexes tend to overestimate the legal acts and underestimate the real implementation.
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