If we talk about Comparative Regionalism, the main keyword is “regional integration” which is talk about integration from several countries with the same culture, ethnicity, region, and continent who want to collaborate by forming a community for many reasons like accelerating economic growth and equity, social progress + cultural development, maintain regional peace and stability through respect for justice and the rule of law in relations between countries in the region like the European Union, Arab League, Organization of African Unity, ASEAN, etc. wherein there are many beneficiaries for member after joining the regional community that can enter without exception from an economic perspective.
As I think from an economic perspective a forming regional community, there are so many positive perspectives as the main example of when the regional community faces crisis challenges can be seen in the Greek economy (a European Union member) in 2008 having a crisis when the country is unable to pay debts of 4 billion euros to the countries of France, Germany, England, Portugal, America, and Italy when the amount of debt is an accumulated deficit that has been going on for a long time since 1974. The moment in 2008 the European Union classified the Greek economy must provide economic assistance causing the Greek economic crisis to have succeeded in threatening the stability of the European Union organization and causing vulnerability to the economic recovery of the European continent as a whole after the global financial crisis in 2008. To provide economic assistance to the Greek state, there is special a clause outside of the Maastricht Agreement prohibiting the granting of a bailout (loan funds) to members of the European Union organization, namely a clause in article 122 of the Lisbon Treaty that can be used as the basis for the European Union organization to provide economic assistance to the Greek state to cause to be classified as an extraordinary condition by this clause. Another example can be seen by economic recovery due to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic where many countries joining their regional communities can benefit especially from the economy, where trade activities have begun to improve with easier access to export and imports activities to member countries of the regional community, as well as business sector operations where member countries can look for talents quality and competitive in the member countries.
In the conclusion of comparative regionalism, the main motive for the formation of many regional community integrations throughout the world is that many countries depend on other countries for many reasons like economic accelerate, saving the country’s financial condition, guaranteeing security in conducting business and trade activities where not all countries have the nature, human, and technology resources. Nevertheless, in practice there are often bureaucratic challenges where many countries often prioritize national interests before community regional interest and it is necessary to increase the commitment to synergy in order to archive common goals in the future.
Ega Arminta, Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia
Email: Egaarminta@students.undip.ac.id
Second Online Summer School on Comparative Regionalism: The Future of Regionalism after Covid-19 Pandemic
