The expansion of the EU

On the 1st of May 2004, ten new members entered the European Union, namely the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lit... » 

On the 1st of May 2004, ten new members entered the European Union, namely the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta. It was the biggest enlargement of the EU till now, both in terms of the number of countries and the number of inhabitants. On top of this, the newcomers were on average much less ÔwealthyÕ than the 15 members which made up the EU till then. Their average GDP amounted to about 40% of the GDP of the ÔoldÕ member states. All this caused worries in the EU15, but the new members had their fears, too.



The ÔoldÕ members posed questions like Òwhat will it cost?Ó, Òwill our companies reallocate activities to the East?Ó, or Òwill our workers lose their jobs because of the in-migration of workers from the new member states?Ó. The new member states worried about the future of their economy: Òwill we be competitive?Ó, Òwhat will happen to our agricultural sector?Ó, Òhow much support will that sector get from ÔBrusselsÕ?Ó, or, Òwhat happens with our most educated workers? Will they be attracted by the big money in the West?Ó



Of course, the reason to enlarge the EU was not only economical, but political as well. And apart from possible dangers, there are advantages from a macro-economic point of view, the biggest one being the opening up of new markets. Actually, this process was already under way. Already in the nineties, trade and investment between East en West increased a lot.



The contributions in this book deal with the possible consequences of the enlargement of the EU, trying to answer the questions posed in the old as well as in the new member states. «