2020 Issue №4

The confessional space of regions and countries is dynamically changing and acquiring new characteristics. But these changes and the factors that de­termine them are not fully reflected in academic research. One of the least studied topics is the economic activity of confessions. Estonia is one of the few countries in the Baltic region where religion has not been a public institution until nowadays, therefore it hasn’t provided access to the financial records of its religious organizations.

At the same time, the population of modern Estonia (more than other countries in Northern Europe) is influenced by the processes of secularization. The aim of the study is to confirm this hypothesis using data from economic and mathematical-statistical tools. Analysis of the financial activities of the leading (in the number of objects of religious infrastructure) of adherents of the EELC and EPC MP lets us state that at the moment the Church has the ability to provide its current activities, but not its development or expansion. Moreover, these religious organizations are already facing the task of losing some number of buildings belonging to them as well as the staff of priests.

Analysis of the economic activity of a religious organization is rarely used in scientific research, however, its results may be indicative of the processes and trends in the functioning of religious institutions, implementation of different aspects of churches' activities as parts of the unite confessional space.

The article studies the development of integration processes in Europe and Eurasia. The purpose of scientific research is to identify the similarities and differences between European and Eurasian integration. The theoretical relevance of the research lies in the comparison of the integration processes re­garding the analysis of demographic and socio-economic development indica­tors of the EU and EAEU countries, as well as the integration mechanisms and instruments. The research comes to the conclusion on the possibility of adopting the European Union integration experience for the further integra­tion processes in the Eurasian integration process. The primary tool for re­search is the comparative analysis. It is noted that the economic integration of countries in the post-Soviet space follows the path of the European Union in terms of adopting the organization principles. However, despite some similari­ties, integration associations have significant differences in the starting condi­tions, motives and context of integration, and the tools and mechanisms for its implementation.  The authors conclude that the implementation of certain fundamental principles of constructing European integration, such as federal­ism and democracy, is not possible in EAEU decisions making. Nevertheless, the achieved harmonization of some regulations and standards of the countries of the two integration associations, in the process of borrowing European ex­perience, will contribute to their further economic convergence and interac­tion. The practical relevance of the research is to show the possibility of partial adopting of the EU experience for further integration of the EAEU countries and the need to improve the theoretical foundations that could form the basis for the development of Eurasian integration.