EU Economy Issues and Policies - Essay Example

ship and they include: Macedonia, Iceland, Serbia, Turkey and Montenegro and have also started negotiations for membership except Macedonia (Archick, 2005 p.255). Other countries that have signed Stabilizations and Association Agreements (SAA) with the European Union include; Western Balkans, Bosnia, Albania and Herzegovina. This agreement is a prerequisite for lodging membership applications thus are considered potential candidates. Many analysts have argued that the South-eastern enlargement of the European Union is not only a test for the European Union, but also for the member states and candidates as well.

According to Nuroglu & Kurtagić (2012 p.42), this kind of enlargement with candidates as well as potential candidates is estimated to increase the number of population by 19%, the European Union area by 25%, and the absolute gross Domestic Product by 5% (Nuroglu & Kurtagić, 2012 p.42). Even though the accession time is not known yet, the European commission is contemplating starting with the first three applicants: Montenegro, Croatia and Iceland (Nuroglu & Kurtagić, 2012 p.43). It is however important to note that the GDP income for the countries are 3 times below 27 member EU average (Nuroglu & Kurtagić, 2012 p.43). This forms the basis of sceptics argument and question that “why expand the EU at all?

(Nuroglu & Kurtagić, 2012 p.43). The following discussion looks into these issues into details and outlines the compelling economic arguments in support of European Union enlargement. Proponents of European Union enlargement argue that such successful accession would accumulate a lot of benefits not only to the members of the union but also to the individual citizens. However, some economic analysts have differed with this point of argument stating that such enlargement would not benefit the European Union but the new members due to their small size economy and population.

The main economic arguments for further enlargement of the European Union are