25/09/2006 10:22:46 am
Further Enlargement. On January 1st, several important EU enlargements will take place. The eurozone will include Slovenia, the 13th euro country. A natural step of limited importance, since it is a small country but with a stable economy. The EU enlargement with Bulgaria and Romania, however, is hotly debated. They have not yet received the final approval from the EU, but it is likely that they will.

These countries will be two of the poorest EU members with a GDP per capita at about 35 per cent of the EU average. But their annual economic growth rates have been higher than 5 per cent for a number of years. Still, some see the possibility that people from these countries will go to the West to work as a problem. In Britain, which has benefited greatly from Polish people going there to work, there are demands to put restrictions on the free mobility.

It is the same debate as 2004 all over again. The evaluations of the previous enlargement have showed strong positive effects for both east and west. To the rather limited extent that people moved, they did not come to live off the welfare state, they came to work. And when they did, that increased the prosperity in those countries - mainly Ireland and Britain - and did not increase unemployment. It is exactly what will happen now as well.

Read more in the FT - >