ENEPO: EU Eastern Neighbourhood - Economic Potential and Future Development

The purpose of this paper is to measure and analyse how intensively CIS countries apply non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to restrict foreign trade in regard to certain products and total trade. Five CIS countries were selected for this analysis: Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Moldova, Belarus, and the Kyrgyz Republic. We first considered measurement methods usually applied to NTBs, reviewed other studies measuring NTBs in CIS countries, and then described our own findings on the matter. This analysis was made in the framework of the EU Eastern Neighbourhood: Economic Potential and Future Development (ENEPO) project seeking to examine different aspects of the European Union's relations with its neighbours to the East.non-tariff barriers, CIS countries, trade policy

The Western Economic Recession – Causes and Consequences

It is known that the current economic recession of the Western triad (USA, EU and Japan) started last August with the bankruptcy of some important banks in the real estate field of the American economy. Then, this dysfunction shattered not only the real estate field of the American economy, but also the whole banking and stock market system of the triad, a system that seemed indestructible. As a consequence, the US economy, the economies of the countries in the Euro monetary area and the Japanese economy simultaneously entered a state of recession in the second half of last year. Inevitably, this shock wave spread quickly, causing an important deterioration of the economic situation at global level. There has been talked and written a lot about these events in national and international media. Apparently, until now there were enough opinions, data and information present in the media regarding the nature, causes and consequences of the current dysfunctions in the most industrialized countries of the world, as well as in the economies of other countries. But in fact, a lot of these data and pieces of information have a very low degree of validity. In na-tional and international media, there are, unfortunately, too many mystifications and ideological omissions regarding the so-called „global financial crisis” and few rational-cognitive evaluations of the nature, causes and consequences of the general recession within the Western triad.

Drought Resistance And Productivity Of Wheat And Soybean Isogenic Lines With Different Photoperiodic Sensitivity

The results of the study of drought tolerance of isogenic (NILs – near isogenic lines) by genes PPD (photoperiod) wheat lines and isogenic by genes ЕЕ (early maturation) soybean lines, that control the photoperiodic sensitivity are presented. In field experiments the photoperiodic sensitivity of the lines when grown under natural long days (16 hours at a latitude of Kharkov) and under artificial short-day (9 hours) is determined. The results showed that line PРD-D1A and PPD-A1a wheat and soybean lines L 71-920 had a weak photoperiodic sensitivity (weak PPDS) and line PPD-B1a wheat and soybean lines L 71-920 - strong photoperiodic sensitivity (strong PPDS). Wheat and soybean lines with weak PPDS were more productive. When simulating drought action on seed germination (20% strength mannitol solution - rapid method), it was showed that the seeds of soybean and wheat lines with weak PPDS have a higher germination than seeds of the lines with strong PPDS. When simulating soil drought (30% FMC – field moisture capacity of the soil) under growing experiment, it was revealed that the biomass accumulation indices of plants, leaf relative water content (RWC) and proline content in leaves lines with weak PPDS were higher than in the photoperiodic lines with strong PPDS. So, all used methods for determining drought tolerance showed that the low photoperiodic sensitivity lines are more resistant to drought.It is assumed that wheat genes PPD and soybean genes EE can participate in the formation of resistance to drought. Genotypes with low photoperiodic sensitivity should be used in breeding soybean and wheat drought resistance