BizKnowledge Watch

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The European Commission has carried out a through review of EU expansion from 2004 to 2007 in its recently-published report, Five Years of an Enlarged EU: Economic Achievements and Challenges. There can be no doubt that in 2004 at least some of the 15 existing EU countries were initially sceptical about the benefits of enlargement for their economies and societies. However, this report, which assesses the overall impact of enlargement with the benefit of five years hindsight, dispels many of these popular misconceptions, concluding that all the member countries, both new and old, have gained from the situation. The report focuses on economic indicators, such as employment, the free movement of persons, competition levels and the role of institutions in economic development. Enlargement is studied from three perspectives: the impact of enlargement on the EU as a whole and its place in the global economy; the recently acceded Member States and how they have integrated into the EU, and the impact of enlargement on the old Member States.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Economics & Statistics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.