Book Description

Ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic (CEECs) are candidates to join an enlarged European Union (EU) in the years to come. The ten are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. This enlargement will bring many opportunities to the both the EU and the candidate countries. For the EU it will bring enhanced weight and influence. For the candidate countries it should mean an improvement of their long term growth prospects by providing access to an open single market. The accession process is providing the impetus for the acceleration of much needed economic, political, institutional and social reforms in some of the CEECs as they strive to meet EU membership requirements. The key for the CEECs is to achieve sustained, high long-term growth in order to meet their ultimate objective of accession. The EU has already concluded agreements with the CEECs which went beyond the narrowly conceived ideas of market access to include the alignment of the CEEC economic system with that of the EU's. This report sets out the future agenda for the successful integration of the CEECs into an enlarged EU. The first priority is for each country to complete its own process of transition to a free market democratic state. In short this will mean that many will have to address: their fiscal challenges, and ensure fiscal sustainability; the challenge of global financial integration, opening of their capital accounts; the strengthening of their administrative capacity; the reduction of unemployment; and the promotion of social inclusion.