This paper reviews the development of the European integration from its beginning and argues its logic and philosophy. This integration model faces the unprecedented challenges such as Brexit and Grexit. However, these challenges are also opportunities for a further development of the European integration. The Asia Pacific region has a different background and development model from what Europe had. However, the European experiences provide some lessons to East Asian countries that have been negotiating free trade agreements between them with their own pragmatic approach.

During the last years a huge number of asylum seekers from the Near East war countries and refugees from African countries have entered the EU. This created a rising xenophobia and an increase of the already existing right-wing parties criticising the “welcome culture”, mainly of German chancellor Merkel. Already before masses of refugees tried to reach Europe the neoliberal strategy, which has pushed a widening gap between rich and poor and which has created a rising number of working poor, has led to a rising potential of critics and votes against the “political establishment.” These two main areas of dissatisfaction have strengthened populist parties. Somehow, the EU has reacted in their spirit by planning stronger police control and blocking rescue ships in the Mediterranean Sea in order to reduce immigration. Replacing this inhuman strategy the EU should put more emphasis on stopping its harmful highly subsidized agrarian exports to Africa ruining its farmers. In addition, there should be a stop of arms export.

This article examines recent security and other issues and interests, collaboration and divergence associated with the European Union and its relationships with two powers Russia and China. Actions by Russia are examined in the context of its aim to redefine the balance of power and the way the European Union is responding to and managing the complex relationship with its neighbour. China's economic and infrastructural activities in Europe through its One Belt One road initiative are examined in the second part of this article. It is argued that European unity is being eroded, in part, by the actions and influence of both Russia and China, especially where the rules based international order, human rights, and the protection and projection of liberal values are concerned. The article concludes that while the European Union has experienced increased overt and covert influence and pressure from Russia and China it is imperative for the European Union to be actively engaged with these state actors.

We study the macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom following the birth of the European single currency euro in 1999. We look at the output, inflation, government budget balance, exchange rate, and currenct account records in the UK compared to other major European countries and the US before and after the introduction of euro. We find that the single currency euro per se does not necessarily improve the macroeconomic performance of the member states in the analysis of the output, price and current account data. We must introduce additional instruments and close policy arrangements in order to materialize the economic benefits of a single currency.

After five years of implementation of the EU-Korea Free-Trade Agreement (FTA), the European Union (EU) was able to turn consistent and persistent trade deficits with South Korea into a surplus, signalling the positive effects of the EU-Korea FTA on the EU exports to South Korea. On the other hand, Korean expectations were not met. Some reasons for this unexpected result for South Korea include the economic recession in Europe, South Korea's concentrated export structure, and the relocation of Korean firms' production base abroad. However, it should be noted that the EU-Korea FTA produced positive effects on South Korea in these years as it could prevent further reduction of Korean exports to the EU. Using latest best practices in the gravity model literature, I examine the impact of the EU-Korea FTA on EU-Korea trade through a gravity model consisting of 100 countries over the period 2004-2016, at aggregated and disaggregated level, and for each EU member. The breakdown at disaggregated data and for each EU member enable a better understanding about which lines of commodities and countries benefitted more from the EU-Korea FTA.