An Analysis of the Economic Performance between Nations that made up the 2004 Enlargement of the EU

Abstract

The 2004 enlargement of the European Union was the largest single acceptance of members to the organization at a single time in its history. Many EU members were opposed to the enlargement because many of the nations that were being considered for acceptance were thought to have inferior economies to the other EU members, and 8 of the 10 were former communistic states. The hypothesis of this study was that acceptance to the EU was not beneficial for the member nations of the 2004 enlargement in relation to their annual GDP mean performance, which was found to be true. This article discusses the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008, and its impact on all EU members. It also discusses problems surrounding euro adoption of nations within the Eurozone and the flawed design of the EU, specifically the ECB and the EMU.