Biggest Enlargement Research Articles

Further EU enlargement – a ‘brave new world’, or more like ‘back to the future’?

Will the challenges faced by both the European Union and a candidate country during a future enlargement process be ‘new’ challenges, or will they be reiterations of challenges successfully overcome during previous enlargements, notably during the ‘Big Enlargement 1.0’ in 2004? This contribution argues that many of the challenges (institutional, political, economic, legal, and linguistic) are indeed not new; but that a future EU enlargement is likely to take place within a far more uncomfortable global environment. In particular, the presence of a hostile and aggressive near neighbour in the shape of Russia will require a concerted and intelligent response.

7.D. Workshop: Optimal development and interactions between cancer policy tools at the EU and national level

Abstract Cancer planning is a public health activity that has taken an important place in the health policy arena over the past 35 years. Cancer plans, programmes and strategies were mostly presenting with the challenges of inadequate comprehensiveness, uncertainties on implementation, insufficient resources and missing evaluation. EU launched its Europe Against Cancer Programme in 1985 and it was running successfully until 2003, falling short of the date of the biggest enlargement of the EU. The revival of the EU activities followed with Slovenia's Presidency to the Council of the EU bringing cancer back to the top of the agenda. This resulted in triggering several activities that strongly involved Member States (MSs): Establishment of the European Partnership for Action Against Cancer. EC call on the MSs to develop their national cancer control programmes (NCCPs) by 2013. Launch of several joint actions (JAs) - EPAAC, CanCon, JARC, iPAAC, policy projects to support the development of cancer policy both in MSs as well as in the EU Launch of the European Reference Networks (ERNs) All of these activities raised the expectations that the EU should take a more important role in steering activities in cancer control across the entire Union. Adoption of the Europe's Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP) marks a special moment in EU activities in cancer policy. It is the first time there is a comprehensive agenda on cancer, which includes both the classical preventative activities as well as cancer care and the challenges related to survivorship. The workshop is intended to present the main flagships in the EBCP, how they are to be implemented at the EU level and at the level of the MSs. Special reflection will be given to the role of research in cancer at all aspects of the disease. As research and innovation are an important component of the EBCP, the Mission on Cancer by DG RTD is prepared in close alignment and with the Mission Board acting as an independent advisory board to the EBCP, proposing a set of research and other policy actions and assist in its implementation. During the workshop, an assessment will be presented on how the recommendations of the work of the Mission on Cancer are incorporated into the EBCP. Finally, there will be a moderated discussion with the panellists and the audience on: what will be the challenges of developing national cancer policy priorities in response to the flagships of the EBCP, how these actions are going to be reflected in NCCPs, how can cancer policy development become a model for other NCDs. Participants are expected to gain more insight into the key policy priorities and public health actions related to the EBCP, how they are going to be supported by the MSs and what should be jointly undertaken to tackle the challenges related to the full implementation of EBCP across the EU. Key messages Cancer policy needs to be developed at the EU and country levels in a coordinative process. Comprehensiveness is necessary in addressing all public health challenges of the 21st century.

Europe’s Lost Charm and how to Regain Confidence

At the peak of its achievements the EU started to decline. Overambitious integration plans, the ‘big enlargement’ and changing external conditions have eroded its efficiency. The tensions are rooted in the complexity of the integration structure, in the ‘democratic deficit’ and in obvious weaknesses of EU foreign policy. To regain confidence, these problems should be handled in a new and innovative way. The year 2019 was particularly appropriate for action because of the timely coincidence of the EU institutions’ renewal in conjunction with the launch of the long term budget. Fewer actors in fewer sectors could achieve more integration by ‘hard core’ methods. EU institutions should undergo a strong ‘slimming diet’. Voting for individual EP candidates on party lists should become possible by 2024. The office terms of the EP and the EC should be shortened. The EU budget should shift its emphasis to ‘blended financing’ combined with bank loans and reimbursable grants and be based on strict conditionality. The EU should proclaim a clear and aggressive neighborhood and enlargement program for the next legislative period. Finally, EU foreign policy should concentrate on the most important issues and partners with meaningful mandates and strong support from member states.

The European Union After the Rome Declaration: A New Opening or a New Euro-pessimism?

AbstractThe European Union has been a rare feat achieved by the continent’s societies. Today, almost 15 years since its biggest enlargement and 10 years since the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon, Europe is facing unprecedented challenges, both globally and internally. It long seemed that the way to take on the challenges of the changing world was through united diversity—a stance that is no longer a given. Adopted on the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the Rome Declaration was supposed to address the greatest challenges lying ahead of the EU and its member states.Based on an analysis of the Rome Declaration in the light of the Treaty of Lisbon, this paper outlines the biggest threats and possible scenarios of the European integration process. The ruminations below indicate that the declaration signed by the leaders of the 27 member states by and large successfully determined the key problems of European integration. However, contrary to the appearances, it fails to address them in substance. The overriding research method adopted in this study was a critical analysis of the subject literature, as well as EU studies and documents.

Socio-Economic Development and Diversity of the Selected CEC Regions After the EU Enlargement

Development and diversity is connected not only with GDP or GNI per capita level, but often with measurement of another socio‑economic indicators as rate of unemployment, health and education fields or households equipment. The aim of this paper is, with the quantification of socio‑economic indicators, to describe the development of regional diversification using cluster analysis at the regional level of selected Central European Countries after enlargement of European Union. The regions at NUTS 2 level of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia were selected for this purpose. There are 37 regions on the NUTS 2 level – eight in the Czech Republic, seven in Hungary, sixteen in Poland, four in Slovakia and two in Slovenia. The research was made in the first two programming periods after the big enlargement of EU – from 2004 to 2006 and 2007 to 2013 with their comparison. According to hierarchical cluster procedures, using the Ward method, the five clusters were set and it was found that regional diversity still exists and positive development recorded only forty nine percent of the monitored regions.

Zmiany wielkości produkcji wieprzowiny i jej struktury w Unii Europejskiej ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem pozycji krajów przyjętych po 2004 r.

Tak zwane „duże rozszerzenie” Unii Europejskiej w 2004 r. wywołało wiele zmian w funkcjonowaniu poszczególnych rynków rolnych. Dotyczyły one producentów rolnych, przetwórców i dystrybutorów z krajów nowo przyjętych ale także funkcjonujących dotychczas w strukturach Unii. Celem opracowania jest analiza zmian w wielkości i strukturze produkcji żywca wieprzowego w Unii Europejskiej ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem pozycji krajów przyjętych po 2004 r. Analizą objęto lata 2005-2016. Wykorzystano materiały statystyczne ze źródeł bazy danych Eurostat. W opracowaniu wykorzystano podstawowe metody analizy statystycznej danych. W analizowanych latach, przy ogólnym trendzie wzrostu produkcji wieprzowiny w UE, wystąpiły istotne zmiany w jej wielkości w poszczególnych krajach. Znacznie wzrosła produkcja w krajach tzw. starej Unii. Głównymi beneficjentami zmian na rynku wieprzowiny w obszarze Unii byli producenci żywca i przetwórcy z Niemiec i Hiszpanii. W krajach przyjętych po 2004 r. wystąpiła generalnie tendencja spadkowa w wielkości produkcji przy czym największe spadki w większości krajów obserwowane były w 2009 roku.

Impact of the Enlargement of the European Union on the Foreign Trade and Development of the New Members

Summary One of the most important characteristics of the process of globalization is the creation of different regional economic integrations. The most developed regional economic integration in the world is the European Union. Since it was found, when six founder countries created the free trade area for coal and steel, European Union passed all the phases of development of the economic integration, through the customs union and common market to the economic and monetary union. Through the six waves of enlargement European Union has become the integration of 28 countries with over 500 million habitants. Every enlargement of this regional integration had an impact on the economic position and the development of both the old and the new members. The biggest increase in the number of members brought the 5th big enlargement of the European Union, when the number of the member countries increased in total for 12 countries, first for 10, and then for 2 more. The effects of this enlargement on former soviet countries are specially interesting not only because of the number of the new members, but also because of the fact that these countries during the joining have also pass the process of the transition to the market economy. The aim of this work is to examine the effects of the enlargement on the foreign trade of the new members, and the effects of the changes in foreign trade on the economic development of these countries. The analysis of the effects of joining the European Union could be interesting for the countries which strive to become members of this economic regional integration.

Fiscal Impact of EU Migrants in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

The recent decade marked two quite important trends in the economic landscape of the European Union. The first one was the expansion of the Union to include former Soviet bloc countries, including the big enlargement of 2004 followed by the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. This was a huge challenge for the EU, as the impact of opening the economic space to markets so divergent in terms of economic development was largely unknown.The economic impact of the EU enlargement started to unravel, to a great extent, amidst the global financial crisis and the ensuing recession in Europe. This was a period of significant strain for public finances. Weak economic activity, increased unemployment combined with the relatively wide social welfare protection in most EU countries resulted in a sharp worsening of the fiscal balance. In fact, social expenditure (including old-age pensions) currently takes more than half of all government spending in most EU countries. As a share of GDP, its share has gradually grown to exceed 30%. In some countries, the last five years saw an increase in social expenditure of 5 percent (of GDP).At the same time, in recent years the free movement of people in the EU has gained speed. It has been facilitated by the gradual removal of all barriers to the employment of workers from the new Member States which were applied to a different extent by some of the old Member States. As a result, the number of EU migrants increased substantially between 2005 and 2013. By 2013, there were 13.7 million EU citizens living in another EU country, which is 2.7% of the entire population of the Union.This raises the valid question about the impact of the free movement of people on the economy of the destination country. Migrants change the demographic profile of cities and regions, they affect the labour market, they pay taxes and they claim benefits. The evaluation of the net fiscal impact of non-native EU-citizens residing in other EU countries is a complex task, requiring a number of credible key assumptions, detailed data on various items of public spending and revenues, in addition to precise information on migration flows and population, and this information is not always available. Most of the recent studies suggest that immigrants have a rather small impact on the host country’s public finances. Notwithstanding the methodologies used, coverage or assumptions, the bulk of academic research estimates the net fiscal impact of immigrants to vary in the range of ± 1% of GDP.The fiscal impact of migrants depends, to a great extent, on the way social security systems are financed; there is a different mix of social security contributions and general taxation in each EU country. The reliance on these contributions has been gradually eroding, as less than half of the social expenditure can be covered by the contribution. This is a result of both the introduction and enlargement of non-contributory benefit schemes and the demographic challenges faced by the health and pension systems in most countries. Moreover, even supplementing social contributions with personal income tax revenues cannot cover the entire cost of the welfare systems. The revenues from social contributions together with the taxes on individual or household income were 21.7% of GDP in EU-27 in 2005, and remained relatively stable throughout the years until 2012 when they reached 22.5% of GDP, according to Eurostat. At the same time, total social expenditure stood at 27% of GDP in the EU-27 in 2004, while in 2010 it exceeded 29%. The transfer from other government revenue (i.e. other taxes and levies) grew from 5.3% to 7.1% between 2005 and 2011. If direct taxes and contributions alone are taken into account, a typical employee in the EU is a net beneficiary of the social security system.This study was undertaken to estimate some aspects of the net fiscal impact of EU migrants in four EU countries – Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The report outlines the role of migrants from EU countries as participants in the labour market, as taxpayers and as benefit recipients also.

Constitutional limits to European integration in the New Member States after the biggest enlargement

We live in the Europe Union (EU) in a context of relations between legal systems of different levels. Therefore the positions of EU New Member States Constitutional or Supreme Courts are analysed in the paper with the use of the multilevel constitutionalism theoretical approach and focus on changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, that opened a new constitutional horizon in the EU integration process. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) defined relations between EU law and national law thanks to the primacy principle of EU law. Nevertheless the EU law's formal authority does not depend exclusively on ECJ position. It is conditioned largely by characteristics of each national legal system and national supreme or constitutional court case law. In fact, in most of EU Member States, certain constitutional reserves or constitutional limits to the primacy of EU law in the constitutional and supreme court case law with regard to (constitutional) fundamental rights and principles, can be found. The paper analyses the origin and development of those limits in the case law doctrine of Constitutional Courts in two old and three new EU Member States and concludes with the identification of the consequences and perspectives of EU integration with regard to the coherent protection of fundamental (constitutional) rights and principles across the EU. (original abstract)

EU 10 years after its biggest enlargement: Europe's identity crisis. Looking in the black box of European cultural and political identities

One of the biggest challenges faced by the European Union (EU) is also one of the most ignored by academics. This paper argues that a Western-European culture exists. It has been shaped by a millennium of Catholic influence which fostered the distinction between politics & religion. It is therefore distinct from an Eastern-European culture mostly shaped by the influence of the Orthodox Church. Such Western-European culture gives enough cultural unity to allow the EU to become a more politically integrated Union. Cultural unity is however not enough to create a political union. There is also the need for political identity. Such political identity already exists but is rarely made explicit contrary to what the official wisdom says, what is now the current EU was rather built as a project of non-domination than as a project of peace per se. Enlargements undermined both identities. Firstly the EEC enlarged to a united-kingdom that shares this Western-European cultural identity, but not a political identity. Later Eastern-European countries like Bulgaria joined, undermining the pre-existing cultural identity. (original abstract)

David Cameron’s ‘Huge Mistake’. Closing of the United Kingdom Labour Market for Eastern European Immigrants from Polish and British Perspective

Eastern European immigrants coming to the UK since 2004 (in 2/3 from Poland) by their amount of work have concurred to serious growth of the GDP. But simultaneously they have been burden for British welfare system (among others by taking benefits for family members living outside the UK) and taking job even for minimum salary what have caused growth of native British unemployment. In this situation Conservative-Liberal Government leading by David Cameron have decided to limit an access to the UK labour market by language knowledge tests and tightening social benefits policy to job seekers. With informal support of main opposition parties (i.e. the Labour Party and the UKIP) D. Cameron have taken risky game showing he has been able to fight for his nation’s interests even in spite of huge protests of Polish and other Eastern European countries politicians and against the European Parliament resolution of 16 January 2014. But when turning out into a defender of Britons’ rights he also has showed that there have been deep divisions between “old” and “new” Europe still after 10 years of the EU’s biggest enlargement in 2004.

Urban Geographical Economics and per Capita GDP Growth in Romania

1. Introduction The processes of transition from a central planning economy to a more market oriented economy and EU accession, the two dominant political and socioeconomic processes that characterized the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) since the collapse of communism, have, over the last two decades, been followed by different growth dynamics which lead to interesting patterns of convergence, divergence and polarization. CEE economies, contrary to Western European countries which have had the historical framework to be aware of the importance of protecting institutions and building a solid institutional framework, have ignored the important role of the institutions in their processes of transition, generating a defective institutional framework, with high transaction costs, uncertain property rights, inflation problems in many cases, not clearly imposed laws, barriers in the way products enter on the market, etc. Moreover, the accession of CEE countries to the European Union in 2004 and 2007 intensified the processes of economic integration, restructuring and national development, thus shrinking the evolutionary time during which the aforementioned processes were to take place. Economic transformations occurring globally and increased risk aversion contributed to a significant reduction of capital flows to Romania, increased pressures upon exchange rate (3). Under the influence of these processes, the last twenty years have seen an important change in the old spatial economic structures and a sharp increase in regional disparities across many Central and Eastern European countries. Romania did not escape to such changes. The deindustrialization process in Romania was very important. The share of industry in Romania's GDP decreased from 46% in 1985 to less than 28% in 1999, however, its contribution to the export sector is still decisive. In 1997 and 1998 respectively, 97% of the value of exported goods in Romania was produced in the industry sector, while in 1999 the figure was 95%. Moreover, strong patterns of polarization and core-periphery structures emerged which were characterized by the concentration of economic activities around Bucharest-Ilfov, Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca, leaving other parts of the country, mainly in the North-East relatively underdeveloped. Therefore, the process of national convergence, stimulated by increasing openness and economic and political integration, has not been accompanied by a similar trend for cross-regional incomes equilibration. Transition was soon followed by increasing economic openness, with substantial shifts in trade partners and specializations and significant inflows of foreign investments, both of which contributed further to altering the economic geography of the countries concerned among them it was also the case of Romania. In order to analyze the growth dynamics of the Romanian economy during this twenty years (4) after the fall of its communism system in December 1989 we have broken down the whole period into 4 sub periods which are going to be analyze at national level and economic region (5) level. * 1995-2008 which constitutes our whole sample period * 1995-2000, this is a period mainly characterized by huge political instability, severe economic crises and also high inflation * 2000-2004 a period characterized by the recovery of the economy and subsequent high growth rates as a result of the reforms of the 90s combined with the positive effects coming from the rest of the countries in Europe. * 2004-2008 is a period characterized at the European level by a big enlargement of the European Union and unprecedented economic growth rates in Romania (average 8-10% annually). The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents a brief overview of the analysis of the growth dynamics in Romania over the period 1995-2008. Section 3 analyzes in detail the regional growth in Romania by typology of region. …

Financial Crises, Safety Nets and Regulation

The historical record shows that financial crises are far from being a rare a phenomenon; they occur often enough to be considered part of the workings of finance capitalism. While there is no single hypothesis that can best explain all crises, the implications of the credit boom-and-bust hypothesis, supplemented with asymmetric information, are consistent with the onset and development of many crises, including the current subprime crisis. Governments have reacted to crises by erecting a vast and growing safety net. In turn, to minimize their risk exposure, they have also put in place expansive systems of regulation and supervision. The unwinding of the current crisis will mark a big enlargement of the safety net and moral hazard, as well as a predictable flurry of policy proposals aimed at closing past regulatory loopholes. The maintained hypothesis is that regulatory and market failures are inexorably intertwined.

Ratione temporis application of the preliminary rulings procedure

Until the greatest enlargement of the European Union in 2004, the question of inter–temporal application of the preliminary procedure had not raised any particular controversies. The ECJ adopted a very liberal approach towards the questions submitted by the courts of the new Member States, even if the application of the EC law in a particular case was doubtful. This line of judgments changed after the “big enlargement” in 2004. There are striking examples of this in the judgments issued on preliminary questions referred by the courts of the new Member States, in which the ECJ seemed to ignore the rules pertaining to the principles of the EU law application ratione temporis and the binding force of the national court?s assessment of whether the question is necessary to adjudicate the case. The article analyses first the principles of the applicability of EU law ratione temporis. Then it deals with the ECJ’s views as to the applicability of Article 234 EC in inter–temporal situations. This section is divided in two parts – dealing with the ECJ’s jurisprudence before the enlargement in 2004 and afterwards. In conclusion, it proposes how to define the boarderline for the use of the preliminary ruling procedure in inter–temporal situations for the benefit of both EU law and the national courts of the new Member States.

The impact of EU-Enlargement on relations between Europe and East Asia

On 1 May 2004 the European Union’s biggest Enlargement ever materialised when ten countries joined the EU. The new member states—Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia—brought 75 million new citizens into the Union which now comprises a population of 455 million. In spite of the historical importance of EU enlargement, it seems to have raised relatively little interest beyond Europe. This paper tries to narrow the research gap by discussing the most significant implications of EU enlargement for Europe–Asia relations in the areas of general inter-regional (political) links, trade and investment.

Migrations in Europe: Fears due to the enlargement of the EU to the East

The European Union is confronted with the biggest enlargement in its history: ten states, among them eight middle European - the so called "buffer zone" in the new European migration landscape - will become members in 2004. Other candidates hope to join in the coming years. For all Eastern and Eastern European countries, including those that are not candidates, the end of the bi-polar world meant a hope of "return to Europe". When shifting its borders to the East, the European Union both includes and excludes. The final objective to achieve Europe as "a space of freedom, security and justice", is conditioned by the capacity and necessity to control the migratory flows. The prospect of free circulation for the citizens of the new Union members entails also fears: the EU countries are afraid of the consequences the enlargement would have on migratory flows from the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and which transit through that area. The perception of migrants as a threat inspired the conditions that the Union imposed on the candidate countries concerning migration policy issues and which mostly focus on the protection of its Eastern borders. For the future Union members however, protecting of the thousand of kilometers of their Eastern border, implies a number of quite different problems. These countries are afraid of the impact the restrictive measures they are obliged to implement would have both on many economic and family ties which have been maintained since the socialist period and on more recently engaged cooperation with the neighbours which are not candidates. The challenge of enlargement is different therefore for the EU members, for the candidate countries and for those who are for the moment excluded from the process. The fears do not seem to be always grounded. Thus, the impact of enlargement which, it was feared, could have been so destabilizing for the Union because of potentially large migration flows, is more likely to be destabilizing for the new candidate countries, especially concerning their relations with their neighbours excluded from the enlargement process.

Leucose linfóide hemocitoblástica da galinha

The author presents two cases of hemacytoblastic lymphoid leukosis of the hen. The lesion is principally characterized by big enlargement in size of the liver and by intense lymphocytic infiltration. The cells are classified as hemocytoblastic cells, because they produce erythrocytes, myelocytes and lymphocytes.