Centrality and peripherness in the EU – a network approach

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the trade between countries in the EU internal market and to establish the degree of centrality of the individual Member States on the basis of the intensity of trade relations. The second purpose is to determine “center – periphery” models observed in the EU, and to define which countries have relatively similar structure of foreign relations. The last objective - but not the least – is to find the socalled “substructures” - cliques or groups of countries, that have stronger relationships. The degree of centrality is one of the characteristics of network models and provides information about the location and potential of a country, based on the intensity of its trade with other countries. “Center – periphery” models show the status of particular countries as central or peripheral players in a market. These relationships are important not only for determining the rank of a country from a statistical point of view, but also to provide information on possible wires for crisis across countries in a community such as the EU. The study was carried out on the base of the analytical technique developed for the social networks analysis. The software used is for Ego-Network data (UCINET). The results are presented in the form of matrices and graphics. The advantage of the analysis is that it examines the system as a network in which units have their roles depending entirely on their position in the network. This gives a new direction to the analysis and new perspective to the standard analysis of trade flows.