What are the relationships between Finland and the Eastern and Central Europe countries after enlargement in 2005?

Résumé du document

The Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) applied for EU membership in the early 1990s. In 1998, the European Union started the accession negotiations with the first candidate countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Estonia. In Helsinki, in December 1999, the European Council decided to start the negotiations with the last five CEEC: Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The integration of the CEEC in the European Union (EU) has been on the agenda of the EU since the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This leads to a process of promoting the system of market economies and the diminution of trade barriers between the EU and the CEEC through the Europe Agreements. With the increasing integration of national economies on the regional level, economic exchange is being liberated and is growing on the global level. The diminution of trade barriers is reflected in cost savings and increased efficiency, thus accelerating the economic growth rates of the participating countries. In other words, growth in trade between countries participating in the integration process does not always take place at the cost of trade with third countries, at least not entirely.

Extraits

[...] The part of agricultural workers in thoses countries is four times the EU average. Besides Romania and Bulgaria, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania remain mainly agricultural countries. The proportion of agricultural workers is important because one half of the EU budget is spent on supporting agriculture. EU agricultural support is undergoing a continuous process of change from providing production aid to becoming an income support system. The high proportion of agricultural workers also leads unemployment problems. In some of those countries, unemployment rates are fairly low. [...]

[...] This situation is similar during last enlargement. The immigrant workers only complete the existing labour on the labour markets of the old Member State. In Finland, many fears have been expressed on the EU enlargement which will have bad effects, especially on the labour market. As a result of competition and relocation of production, jobs will be lost to Member States with lower cost of production, unless labour costs can be cut. However, it must be taken into consideration, that not only the cost and price levels but also productivity are importantly lower in the CEEC than in the West and North EU. [...]

[...] The productivity of agriculture is definitely less in the new Member States than in the old Member States, and the differences of incomes are enormous. However, the situation of agriculture is relatively heterogeneous as well in the old Member States as in the new ones. Certain new Member States have high figures of employment in the agricultural sector in Poland in in Lithuania and 12,5% in Latvia), figures comparable with Greece and Portugal at the beginning of the years 1990. [...]

[...] References : Wikipedia : the enlargement of the European Union http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89largissement_de_l%27Union_europ%C3%A9enne Paper in French : L'élargissement, deux ans après une réussite sur le plan économique (enlargement, two years after a succes at the economic level) By COMMUNICATION DE LA COMMISSION AU CONSEIL ET AU PARLEMENT EUROPÉEN (Communication of the commission of the council and the European Parliament) Downloaded from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/fr/com/2006/com2006_0200fr01.pdf Paper in English : Enlargement, two years after: an economic evaluation By the Bureau of European Policy Advisers and the Directorate-General forEconomic and Financial Affairs Downloaded from: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/occasional_papers/2006/ocp24en.pdf Paper in Finnish : Research on the History of Today : journalism or science ? Henrik MEINANDER Teacher of Histoiry of Finlande and the Scandinavia at the University of Helsinki. [...]

[...] Germany is the first investor, and is particularly active in Czech Republic, in Hungary, in Poland and Slovakia, while the Scandinavian countries have the first place in the three Baltic States. The largest part of the FDI is directed to the services, followed by manufacturing industry. In the Baltic States and to a lesser extent in Poland, the FDI directed to manufacturing industry is still concentrated in the traditional sectors, like agroalimentary industry, the textiles and the products containing wood, but in Hungary, in Czech Republic and Slovakia, the foreign investors are more and more interested in the more technological and modern sectors of production (office automation, computers, telecommunications, car). [...]