Analysis of the dynamics of the European economic security in the conditions of a changing socio-economic environment

The speed the present world changes, is at least impressive. During the last decade the global socioeconomic environment faced major adjustments dictated by globalisation, technological progress and political interests. The European Union seems to fail in keeping up with the changing environment. Thus, if in 2007 the European Union represented 30.7% of the global nominal GDP, then in 2016 it accounted only for 21.7% (World Bank). The economic positions of the European Union have declined much as compared to the rest of the world the fact which inevitably leads to the decrease of the community's political and economic strength. The main scope of the present paper is to assess the extent to which the economic security of the European Union has changed in the period of 2007-2017. At the same time, it has been proposed to identify the main subversive factors which affected the economic security of the European Union in the period of 2007-2017 and threaten the future perspectives of the Union. The results reached by the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis explicitly point out that economic security is decreasing and the identified threats menace the future existence of the European Union.