Question

Is eastern enlargement of the EU a success? Why or why not?

Answer 1

All Easter European-CEE countries have significantly grown richer in per capita terms, and majority of them have converged with Germany. The transfer of jobs from west to east, the jobs movement lead to employment such as black and Decker or Gillette. Also the migration of skilled workers helped in improving economy because the skilled workers have more efficiency working ability. However the recent enlargements have reduced the ability of bloc’s to find consensus and act decisively. The increasing number of extra countries, and differing wealth levels, legal rights, culture, local norms and priorities indicates that now interests regularly diverge; therefore it will be very difficult for the policies of EU to be enforced in a uniform approach. Secondly, in the few parts of EU-CEE, the convergence of institutions, standards of corruption and freedom of media with Western Europe has gone into reverse. Thirdly a cheap labour pool near to Western Europe has lead to the outsourcing, and has been a main cause for holding down the wages in Germany factor. Fourth, the huge outward migration leads to a pressure on labour markets in EU-CEE countries. Thus in my opinion the eastern enlargement of the EU is not a success