The purpose of this paper is to assess the Tacis programme thirteen years after its inception. Using a combination of economic and social indicators, the paper shows the very high cost of the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy in the case of the thirteen Tacis countries. The...

The aim of this document is to highlight the contribution of Europe’s civil society organisations represented at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on the Single Market debate. The EESC has been closely following the Single Market from the civil society perspective and set up...

This document sets out a summary of the responses received by ESMA regarding the procedural rules to impose fines and periodic penalty payments to TRs and includes ESMA’s final technical advice to the Commission on the future Regulation on the procedural rules to impose fines and periodic...

ESMA delivers second set of advice on EMIR equivalenceFollowing its technical advice published on 9 September 2013, the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) has published a supplement to its advice to the European Commission on the equivalence of the regulatory regime for central...

This paper presents evidence for structural differences in economic growth dynamics between the current EU and the central- and eastern European accession countries. Two important results emerge from the analysis. First, accession countries have posted higher average growth and wider output...

The paper analyses the evolution of the trade specialisation pattern in the ten countries which will join the EU in 2004, by studying the dynamics of their comparative advantages over the period 1993-2000. The study finds that, although some countries are still broadly relying on natural...

We quantify the degree of persistence in unemployment rates of transition countries using a variety of methods benchmarked against the EU. In part of the paper, we work with the concept of linear u0093Hysteresisu0094 as described by the presence of unit roots in unemployment. Since this is...

This report provides an overview of the state of air quality in 13 central and eastern European countries involved in the European Union's Phare Programme. Based on EUROAIRNET monitoring network data for 1997 as reported by these countries, it also provides information on emission sources and...

The paper extends the standard intertemporal model of the current account to include two important stylised facts: (1) the persistence of current account positions and (2) the relevance of the fiscal balance. Specifically, the paper derives a closed form solution for consumption in the presence...

This paper deals with the discussion in Germany about job exports to the low-cost Eastern European members of the EU. It states that the critics of EU enlargement in Germany have overlooked that Eastern and Western Europe strongly differ in their capital formation and productivity levels. The...