EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT - Essay Example

383). In political circles of majority of states now one may observe the understanding of fallibility of idea of national separation and self-sustainability within the state borders, artificial separation of any state from the international intercourse. Integration processes get their legal implementation through the variety of agreements between states on creation of various unions and organisations. The European Union belongs to such organisations. Since May, 1st, 2004 ten more member-states has entered the European Union.

The European Union is becoming the leading economic world centre, has sharply strengthening its political influence on the world scene, having united the states, which population is made nearby half milliard people. So, the European Union has expanded too far. No doubts that it has a lot of benefit for the European Union itself and for its member-states. But at the same time there are now too many conflicts of interest between the countries involved for it to be a successful economic entity. The fifth expansion of the European Union on May, 1st, 2004 was the most ambitious for the whole history of the Union taking into consideration both quantity of the joined member-states, and complexity, as new member-states are the countries with different and often various social and economic history.

Since then it has already passed more than three years, and this term is sufficient to analyse short-term and mid-term consequences of the expansion for economic development of new member-states. The process of the last expansion of the European Union from the economic point of view had some prominent features. First of all, it was a joining of ten countries with essentially lower social and economic indices in comparison with the European Union-15 that proves a crucial opportunity of association for different by the level of development groups of countries not only on principles of free trade or a customs union, but