The ‘Eastern enlargement’ in May 2004
opened the EU’s doors to ten countries. Of these, the four Visegrád
states, the three Baltic countries and a former Yugoslav state had at
that time completed their 15-year transition towards a market economy.
In the first half of the 1990s these countries’ income, measured in
terms of GDP, had fallen by 20 to 30 percent. Poland was the first
country to return to the same income levels as before the transition,
Hungary was next in 2000, and the other countries followed later.
The experience of the ‘great
transformation’ which began in Central-Eastern Europe a quarter of a
century ago played a key role in determining what the citizens of the
new Member States expected from their accession to the EU: stable and
sustainable growth. If we look at the decade since 2004, the region
really seems to have been catching up with Western Europe in terms of
both employment and economic performance.
However, the financial and economic
crisis which started in 2008 disrupted the previous trend of convergence
to some extent. Greater differences between individual countries’
performances also emerged. Poland and Slovakia, for example, generally
continued to catch up, while Hungary fell behind on many growth,
employment and social indicators.
Read more: Laszlo Andor: Where Now After Ten Years Of Enlargement?
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