“Undeclared work in the Europe of enlargement”: that is the title of a study published by the European Commission last week. The document reviews the situation of the black economy in the twenty-five member states of the EU. Starting out from the widely shared definition according to which the black economy means “any productive activity that is of legal nature but that is undeclared to the public authorities”, the study presents a list of the countries classified on the basis of their black economy as a percentage of national GDP. If Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Italy and Slovenia exceed 15%, Belgium, Holland, the United Kingdom and Austria are below 4%. The study, which analyses in detail the situation of the Twenty-Five, including the various causes and facets of the black economy, is available on the Commission’s website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/employment_analysis/work_enlarg_fr.htm
