The “Regional Strength” scenario expects the EU to concentrate on its “own strength” and benefit from an increasing intra-regional demand and supply as a reaction of the establishment of further trade barriers and other protectionist tendencies of extra-EU countries or regional blocks. However, the enlargement of the EU by candidate and potential candidate countries, leading to a considerable expansion of the Intra-EU market, is assumed to strengthen the Intra-EU economies and thus being able to overcome the global dependency. The regional strength will be supported by the conceivable substitution of fossil fuels and raw materials as well as a decrease of energy dependency and costs:
Fast EU enlargement by candidate and potential candidate countries;
Surpassing economic growth in Europe due to increasing Intra-EU production and trade (regionalisation of demand and supply);
Increasing global trade barriers / protectionism (e.g. TTIP on hold);
Strong mitigation of globalisation of the economy;
Above average acceleration of technological development;
Overcoming of fossil fuel scarcity due to substitution and/or stagnating / decreasing energy costs;
Overcoming of raw material scarcity due to substitution and reverse systems (e.g. recycling).