Role of EU RTA network and anti-crisis measures in overcoming the effects of the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a severe economic and political crisis in many countries around the world. For the European Union,as the most developed integration unit, the damage was profound. Moreover, the failure to provide a coordinated policy at the initial pandemic stage raised the question of the advisability of the existence of the Union as such. Nevertheless, EU countries and institutions have managed to overcome many contradictions and formulate common responses, some of them were unprecedented both in nature and funding. This article aims to identify the main elements of the EU policy to combat and overcome the current crisis. At the same time, the EU network of regional trade agreements (RTAs) is considered as an important element of anti-crisis policy in trade in goods, and the quarterly dynamics of EU trade with RTA partners and third countries is also analyzed. The results demonstrate that European institutions use the pandemic to catalyze profound transformations of the EU economy. Main directions are digitalization and «green economy». At the same time, the RTA network should be considered as an autonomous EU anti-crisis tool, since trade with RTA partners recovered to pre-crisis (2018) levels much faster than with other countries.