03/05/2006 4:58:13 pm
The EU Commission: EU Enlargement an Undivided Economic Success. Two years after the EU enlargement with the ten new countries and 75 million people, the EU Commission has evaluated the economic effects. Olli Rehn, Enlargement Commissioner, pointed out: "Many doomsday scenarios preceded the Eastern enlargement, none of which has materialised." Some of the figures mentioned in the study may be worth mentioning:

With an economic growth on average of 3,75 % a year between 1997 and 2005 the EU10 have fared better than the old Member States (EU15) (2,5 % on average in the same period), but at 13,4 % their unemployment rate is still 5,5 percentage points higher than the EU15. Their trade (exports plus imports) represents 93 % of their GDP on average compared with a EU15 average of 55 %. The EU15 share of total EU10 trade increased from about 56 % in 1993 to 62 % in 2005. The EU10 also attracted a lot of foreign direct investment (FDI), reaching an overall stock of ?191 billion in 2004, or 40 % of their total GDP, while it was virtually non-existent some ten years earlier.

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