The present contribution aims at researching the new Eurasian project on the post-Soviet area, the Eurasian Economic Union, by analyzing the legal aspects of both its institutional and economic frameworks. Because of its relatively small size, not only should the Eurasian Economic Union increase bilateral trade with its member states but also promote commerce outside the Union. In this regard, the crucial objective for success is the development of long-term relationships with its strategic partners based on mutual economic benefits and shared values. We applied the gravity model and identified not only which factors influence bilateral foreign trade, including the differences in partners? values based on a neo-institutional approach, but also analyzed those integration blocs and groups of countries to determine with which partners the Eurasian Economic Union should develop strategic partnerships.

Many observers were casting doubts about the existence of a strategic partnership between Russia and the European Union long before the annexation of Crimea and the subsequent strained relations between the two blocs. Nevertheless, the main challenge of this article is to prove that there was indeed a positive effect regarding the strategic partnership on bilateral trading – together with such factors as the growth of the Russian and EU GDPs per capita, the devaluation of the Russian currency and the oil price increase – by applying the Gravity Model. Based on this model, it was also confirmed that there was a negative effect of the geographical distance and sanctions between parties on the EU–Russia trade flow. Moreover, we tried to predict by means of the Error Correction Models how EU–Russia bilateral trade would have changed according to a scenario wherein the parties continued being strategic partners, and had the sanctions not been imposed. As such, and by the method described, not only was it empirically confirmed that the major partners would have received the most benefit from the strategic partnership with Russia but even Russia’s smaller trading partners are incurring significant welfare losses from sanctions, along with Russia itself.

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This article paper aims to investigate the EU’s strategic partners using both theoretical and empirical analysis. Applying the technique of cluster analysis has allowed us, first, to demonstrate that not all of the EU’s ‘special ten’ are strategically sound for the EU; second, to investigate which regional organizations represent the best interest of the EU from a strategic standpoint; third, to find out the true potential of the EU’s strategic partners; and, finally, to prove empirically that the EU’s strategic partners are so heterogeneous as to represent a collective response to multilateralism and that a bilateral approach should be applied instead, taking into consideration the specific character of every strategic partner.

Depopulated rural or post-industrial areas, which are often low-income with fewer job opportunities, represent an open challenge for the European Union. Sharp demographic declines especially in Eastern and Southern Europe, due to the intra-EU migration of younger, skilled workers from these areas have become a serious obstacle to the sustainable development of many EU lower-income regions. The European Parliament highlights the gap in ICT connectivity among other reasons.  This paper aims to provide empirical evidence, by applying Panel Data Analysis, that digitalisation of European NUTS-2 regions with lower incomes via Broadband Access may contribute to reversing negative demographic trends.