Regional integration in Eurasia & the European Union: Exploring opportunities for collaboration

DOC Research Institute in collaboration with the “Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies at the United Nations University (UNU-CRIS)” is organizing a Seminar to address the Dimensions of Eurasia Integration. Eurasian Economic Union (founding members: Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia) was established in 2014 to boost the regional integration among the economies of Eurasian region and to enhance the economic development and cooperation among those countries. Also the expansion of China and India together with some Central Eurasian nations, creates a growing demand to improve the connections between Europe and Asia. To evaluate the extent of which the economies of Eurasia (OECD definition) are integrated, and to identify the determinants of integration in the region, the “Eurasia Integration Index” is launched at DOC institute Berlin on Nov 2019.

From the EU geo-political perspective, the new strategy of the EU Commission is to enhance the EU presence in global power politics to make EU external governance more effective and sustainable. Central Eurasia, spanning from Belarus to Mongolia will certainly provide a fruitful ground for testing this strategy. By making ‘geopolitics’ the forefront of the new strategy, the EU may however struggle to engender partnerships for peace and prosperity, and develop cooperative orders for more sustainable global governance in the increasingly complex and contested world of tomorrow.

Among the questions and points to be discussed:

• The importance of regional integration in Eurasia and the role of Belt and Road Initiative.
• To what extent Eurasia has the capacity to integrate more?
• How can Eurasia Integration Index be compared with other regional indices?
• What are the challenges of cooperation between EU and Eurasia?
• Presentations of the “Eurasia Integration Index”, methodology, and expected outcomes.

Speakers at the seminar will include:

• Elena Korosteleva, University of Kent
• Cyn-Young Park, Asian Development Bank
• Fabienne Bossuyt, Centre for EU Studies
• Mario Apostolov, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
• Behrooz Gharleghi, DOC
• Richard Higgott, moderator, Vrije Universiteit of Brussels

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