Enlargement and the EU Periphery: Introduction

The CEEC share of Irish exports has grown fivefold since transition began, with export sales expanding in all sectors. Even at current income levels there remains scope for a further doubling of exports, and trade will grow even more substantially if accession facilitates the CEEC in converging more rapidly on EU living standards. Most analyses predict that the EU15 sectors that face the greatest threats of enlargement‐induced disruption are Food and Textiles, Clothing and Footwear. In the case of Irish Food Processing, however, the prognosis of the present paper is positive since Irish agricultural output differs quite strongly from that of the CEE economies. The adjustment costs associated with industrial dispution, furthermore, are highest in economies with rigid labour markets, whereas the flexibility of the Irish labour market seems to have improved substantially over the last decade or so. Outward FDI from Ireland has grown strongly over the Celtic Tiger era, and Irish multinational firms have been reasonably active in acquiring companies in their sectors in Cental and Eastern Europe. The main worry for Ireland is that the more successful accession states may divert FDI inflows away from Ireland. Micro‐level analysis of the conditions pertaining in some of Ireland's most important foreign‐dominated sectors – information technology, pharma‐chem and instrument engineering – suggests that these threats may be overstated. The leading CEE economies, rather than drawing FDI away from Ireland, may instead contribute to the further development of EU‐wide production networks, making the networks themselves more competitive as global players. The net cost to Ireland of agreements already reached on the financing of enlargement is quite manageable. The cost to Ireland would escalate dramatically, however, if costs and benefits were to be redistributed within the EU in line with current income levels, entailing a substantial transformation of the CAP transfer mechanism.     

Enlargement and the EU budget: The battles ahead

The coming enlargement of the EU is unprecedented as regards both the number of acceding countries and the wealth differentials existing between the Union's current members and the candidates. The contributors to this forum present their views on how the complex financial issues involved can be solved in a way that will enable the enlarging Union to continue to function while ensuring a fair distribution of the costs and benefits of enlargement. This article is part of the project “Membership of Central and Eastern European Countries in the EU” funded by the Otto Wolff-Stiftung, Cologne.     

EU Enlargement: Expanding the Union and Its Potential

Intereconomics - The new EU member candidates, as well as those who have had this status for a decade, present the Union with an opportunity to decide what kind of club it should be.     

Towards a New Eastern Enlargement of the EU and Beyond

Intereconomics - It is not the first time in EU history that the enlargement perspective is confronted with the need for integration deepening.     

Ukraine and the EU: Enlargement at a New Crossroads

Intereconomics - Joining the EU requires not only that candidate countries fulfil a certain number of conditions, but also that EU countries feel ready to welcome new members.     

EU Enlargement Creating a Framework for the Eu-Russian Rapprochement

Abstract

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union has substantial influence on EU external policy and its relations with non-EU countries, including Russia. In this situation, Russia's main concern is to avoid the creation of new dividing lines after the enlargement. This paper will argue that instead of dividing Europe, the EU enlargement would create a framework for further cooperation and eventually rapprochement between the EU and Russia. Therefore, Russia would be able to benefit from this process. The paper will analyse the consequences of the EU enlargement for Russia and examine the main political concepts determining directions of this rapprochement between the European Union and Russia: New Neighbourhood, Common Spaces and Eastern dimension.     

欧盟东扩对中欧经贸关系的影响

全球最大的区域经济集团欧盟第五次扩大即东扩已经排上日程表,这对中欧经贸关系既有积极影响,又有消极影响。积极影响是为进一步发展中欧贸易创造了良机,有利于整体贸易环境的改善;消极影响是东扩会产生贸易转移效应,对我国大力引进外资不利,可能会助长欧盟内部的贸易保护主义势力。中国政府应从战略高度上认识并重视对欧盟的贸易,实施灵活的区分战略,调整优化出口商品结构,企业则应充分研究世贸组织规则,利用投资促进贸易。     

Enlargement and the EU Periphery: The Impact of Changing Market Potential

We study the impact of changing relative market access in an enlarged EU on the economies of incumbent Objective 1 regions. First, we track the impact of external opening on internal spatial configurations in a three‐region economic geography model. External opening gives rise to potentially offsetting economic forces, but for most parameter configurations it is found to raise the locational attractiveness of the region that is close to the external market. Then, we explore the relation between market access and economic activity empirically. We simulate the impact of enlargement on EU Objective 1 regions. Predicted market‐access‐induced gains in regional GDP and manufacturing employment are up to seven times larger in regions proximate to the new accession countries than in ‘interior’ EU regions. We also find that a future Balkans enlargement could be particularly effective in reducing economic inequalities among the EU periphery, due to the positive impact on relative market access of Greek regions.     

EU Enlargement,Institutional Governance and Innovation Environment in the Baltic Countries

Abstract

This paper presents institutional framework to implement innovative and co-operative procedures of industrial reorganization and economic growth in the Baltic countries. By using the recent features of organization mode theories and institutional economics, we apply how institutional development helps the Baltic firms to survive in the integration of EU25 markets. We present this framework as a dynamic process in three stages. The first stage identifies the main foundations from the transition period: macroeconomic stabilization, privatization, and financial governance. The second stage considers how to build up the institutional structure of the governance in production. The third stage points out those topics that enhance innovation environment and benchmarks the Baltic countries to EU innovation capacity. These progressive stages in financial, production, and innovation systems of governance can be overlapped or happen in sequential order but the final purpose of these improvements is to enhance the managerial incentives for higher innovative activity in the EU-Baltic industrial integration. It is found that the Baltic innovation input capacity is competitive compared with the EU25 average but a gap in innovation output is still essential.     

e-banking culture: A comparison of EU 27 countries and Portuguese case in the EU 27 retail banking context

The aim of this research is two-fold. Firstly we conducted a wise comparative analysis of EU 27 countries and secondly we identified distinct e-banking user segments of Portuguese citizens. We used a questionnaire for data collection (n=2358) and Latent Class Models (LCM) for data analysis. LCM revealed three segments in EU 27 (Portugal is in the poorest cluster, concerning the indicators used, with Greece, Spain and Cyprus) and two e-banking user segments in Portuguese citizens: Those who do not risk (49%), and Those who risk (51%). Our findings enable e-banking managers for taking appropriate strategic decisions.     

The Latest Enlargement of the EU and ‘Buy National’ Rules

This paper presents a variety of indicators which reflect the extent of protection of individual manufacturing industries in ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe by the ‘Buy National’ rules in public procurement. Eight countries joined the EU in 2004 and the two remaining countries will become full members in 2007. Combining these data with information on the current international competitiveness of each individual industry, the paper identifies those industries that are likely to be particularly sensitive to the abolition of ‘Buy National’ rules due to their recent accession to the European Union. Two series of indicators are proposed to measure the impact of ‘Buy National’ policies. The first series outlines the behaviour of the public sector vis‐à‐vis domestic production and imports. The second series of indicators sketches the industrial structure of the sectors which, following the above analysis, seem to be protected by preferential public procurement. The interaction of both series of indicators can provide information about the extent of protection in terms of public procurement on a sectoral level and about its impact on domestic production.     

The New Political Economy of EU State Aid Policy

Despite its importance and singularity, the EU’s state aid policy has attracted less scholarly attention than other elements of EU competition policy. Introducing the themes addressed by the special issue, this article briefly reviews the development of EU policy and highlights why the control of state aid matters. The Commission’s response to the current economic crisis notably in banking and the car industry is a key concern, but the interests of the special issue go far beyond. They include: the role of the European Commission in the development of EU policy, the politics of state aid, and a clash between models of capitalism. The special issue also examines the impact of EU policy. It investigates how EU state aid decisions affect not only industrial policy at the national level (and therefore at the EU level), but the welfare state and territorial relations within federal member states, the external implications of EU action and the strategies pursued by the Commission to limit any potential disadvantage to European firms, and the conflict between the EU’s expanding legal order and national.     

美国和欧盟对待中国市场经济地位问题要遵守国际法

在中国"入世"过渡期即将届满之际,欧盟、美国政治外交领域不断地挑战中国的市场经济地位。外国理论界提出"继续有效论"、"举证责任倒置论"和"客观事实不符论",国内也有学者或多或少赞同以上观点。本文试图针锋相对提出这样的观点:确认WTO早有非市场经济标准,美欧市场经济标准未经WTO的一般授权,不是国际法规则,中国加入WTO议定书从未确认中国非市场经济地位,2016年以后中国的市场经济地位毋须任何缔约国承认。     

A Gravity Model Forecast of the Potential Trade Effects of EU Enlargement: Lessons from 2004 and Path‐dependency in Integration

This paper uses a gravity model to forecast the potential impact on trade balances and trade patterns of the 2004 EU enlargement. The results suggest that gross trade creation for the accession economies is about 25 per cent of their 2003 trade. Although membership of the EU creates trade it also results in trade diversion; that is, a declining share of accession country exports and imports with non‐EU15 countries. Overall, the trade balances of the accession countries suffer larger trade deficits after accession due to import growth surpassing export growth. The extent of increase in the trade deficit due to accession is inversely related to the level of integration and income of the new members. Hence integration is path‐dependent and the EU should take this into account when preparing for further enlargements to the Balkans and Southeast Europe.     

IMF最新报告:欧盟日本中国将引领世界经济继续稳步前行

<正>国际货币基金组织(IMF)4月11日发布的最新报告显示,2006年世界经济实现了5.4%的高速增长,创造了世界经济自70年代初以来的最高增长水平,进一步显现了经济全球化加深、经济增长周期加长、各国政府宏观调控能力提高和世界经济稳步发展的基本特征。