Suchergebnisse

Nowadays world economy is becoming more and more integrated due to regional integrations. Many economists, politicians argue about theeffectiveness of these regional integrations. The purpose of the research paper is to analyze the functions of these integrations, their goals,aims and the benefits for the member country. The research was conducted by several methods, the previous researches about the regionalintegrations issue were analyzed; the survey and interview were conducted. The result is that the membership of some influential and strongregional integration gives some benefits to the country; many countries have been developed and made impressive progress with the help ofregional integrations. But to conclude, behind the benefits there is politics on which the policy of international organizations and their actionsdepends. Sometimes a member country has to give up its independence and freedom of choice, it should act more carefully, because it is partof integration and has higher responsibility.

The aim of the present contribution is two-fold. First, we are going to briefly overview the theoretical arguments suggesting that regional economic integration may enhance the process of real economic convergence or catching up by less-advanced members of integration arrangements towards the development levels prevailing in more advanced member countries. Second, as an empirical test of the foregoing theoretical claims, we will embark on an analysis of actual economic growth paths of the present member countries of the enlarged European Union – both the 'old' (i.e. EU-15) and 'new' ones that is ten transition economies from East-Central Europe who joined the EU in 2004 or 2007, respectively (CEE-10 or EU-10). In particular, we will try to show that the process of regional integration in Europe tended as a rule to enhance the real economic convergence of income levels both within the EU-15 group as well as between the new (EU-10) and the old (EU-15) member countries.

In the absence of sound Democracy, the realisation of Regional Integration in Africa will just be a cosmetic. To meet/address Democratic Governance challenges such as accountability, transparency, respect for human rights, competition, efficient and economical uses of resources and maximum output, constitutionalism must central in all African Countries without which Regional Integration will just be an illusion. No one country can do it all by itself as no one is an island and this makes Regional Integration very crucial for the rapid development of African Countries and Africa as whole in order to achieve the human development of Mama Africa. There is a need to institute and implement sound policies, laws and strong institutions for realising democratic norms and values to facilitate the Regional Integration process of the African Continent. Africa must integrate within itself first before thinking beyond the borders. Without African countries integrating meaningfully among themselves all other integration schemes may not be sustainable in addressing African Problems.