Anatomy of the EUregional trade agreements –what really influences economic integration?

In this paper we analyse a content of the EU trade agreements. In the first part we examine which areas are covered by a certain agreement with a given partner, dividing the areas into these covered by the WTO law and not covered (starting point are works of Horn, Mavroidis & Sapir). To analyse significance of these provisions to economic integration we use gravity models. Such an analyses enables us to formulate some conclusions concerning significance of the EU RTAs, its influence on the EU membership in the WTO as well as the trends in the evolution of the EU RTAs.