ISSUES FACING THE EUROPEAN UNION – A SWOT ANALYSIS

Abstract

The new realities facing the European Union at the beginning of the XXI century placed it in an unpredictable situation of crisis, geopolitical conflict and overindebtedness. These conditions slowed the pace of development and led in fact to the economic slowdown in the European Union - with modest GDP growth in 2013 and low inflation. The European Union has been facing a number of internal difficulties and many threats from the external environment. For this reason there is a need for analysis that takes into account both the internal state of the European Union and the external environment which was characterised by high complexity and dynamics in the period 2008 - 2014.