When the central and eastern European countries join the European Union, steel manufacturers in the region will also have to be fit to face competitive pressures within the EU. The steel industry is already one of the most important sectors in many accession countries. Its share in total...

The collapse of the communist regime in Central and South-Eastern Europe gave way to sweeping economic and socio-political changes, marked by the conversion of centrally planned state economies into market economies, political liberalisation and democratisation, as well as to integration into...

The aim of this report is to analyse the current situation and future prospects of rural areas in the eight central and eastern European countries acceding to the European Union on 1 May 2004 u0096 Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia u0096 as...

This report reveals that Central and Eastern European countries are using at least twice the energy used by the previous 15 EU member states for each unit of economic output. Along with six other non-governmental organisations, WWF, the global conservation organisation, has launched a report...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Central and Eastern Europe declined from a record $31 billion in 2002 to a low of $21 billion last year, the result of the end of privatisation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, according to the World Investment Report 2004: The Shift Towards...

The accession of ten new countries to the European Union on 1 May 2004 represents a further milestone on the way to the economic and political integration of all countries in Europe. With their entry into the EU the new member states from Central and Eastern Europe have officially concluded...

The paper summarises the outcomes of a research project on u0093The Eastward Enlargement of the Eurozoneu0094 that has been, since 2001, conducted by leading research institutions from Estonia, Finland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia, coordinated by the Freie Universität Berlin's Jean...

The first European Parliament elections in the new member states in Central and Eastern Europe demonstrated a profound paradox in terms of being a feedback process of European integration. At the elite level, the accession to the European Union has offered political parties and their leaders...

The EU15 countriesu0092 real GDP per capita levels adjusted for purchasing power converged in 1960u00962001. Convergence occurred in two spells, in 1960u009673 and 1986u00962001, with an interim period of stagnation. In this paper, we analyse both s and b convergence and discuss the impact of EU...