(20 May2015) – On the occasion of the 4th Eastern Partnership summit, which will take place on 21 and 22 May in Riga, Eurostat issues some selected data on demography, economy and trade in goods for the EU, its Member States and the Eastern Partners.
(20 May2015) – On the occasion of the 4th Eastern Partnership summit, which will take place on 21 and 22 May in Riga, Eurostat issues some selected data on demography, economy and trade in goods for the EU, its Member States and the Eastern Partners.
The Eastern Partnership was launched in 2009, as a joint initiative between the European Union and six Eastern European and South Caucasus partner countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
Standing on average at €3 700, the GDP per capita of the Eastern partners represented 14% of that of the EU, the lowest being recorded in Moldova (€1 700) and the highest in Azerbaijan (€6 000, nearly that of Bulgaria).
Across the Eastern Partner countries, the employment rate of the population aged 20 to 64 varied considerably but was everywhere lower than in the EU (69.2%), except in Azerbaijan where it was 73.0%.
In 2014, the six Eastern Partners accounted together for nearly 2% of total extra-EU trade in goods, almost equivalent to Saudi Arabia, the EU’s 11th most important trading partner.