Abstract. Despite the crisis, the economy of the European Union remains to be the largest in the world. The economic mechanism of the EU is rather differentiated. It has a great historical experience and possesses sufficient evolutionary robustness. Currently, the former relationships between the EU and the USA undergo substantial changes and new forms emerge. For both of them the greatest challenge is presented by China which in recent decades shows the solid rates of GDP growth. Supposedly, Chines economy will become the world largest on in the new future. Under such conditions the Old World has to conduct a persistent search for new sources of its successful macroeconomic growth.