“The reunification of Europe is not only a great political achievement, but also a success at the economic level”, declared Joaquín Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, in Brussels on 3 May; Almunia was summing up the first two years of the European Union enlarged to 25 member states. To mark the anniversary, the Executive adopted a Communication with the title “Enlargement, Two Years After – An Economic Success”), which especially examines the economic aspects of the enlargement of the EU frontiers, without ignoring evaluations of political or constitutional type. According to Almunia, “we all derive advantages from the improvement in the living standards of the citizens of the new member states. In fact the businesses of the Union benefit from the new trade opportunities, reinforce their efficiency and thus become more competitive on the global scene”. According to the Commission’s data, “membership of the European Union has produced an acceleration of the economic growth in the 10 new member states, which was all the more necessary seeing that these countries have registered a sharp rise in unemployment due to the massive structural adjustment to the market economy”. Enlargement “has not caused economic problems in the EU and has not triggered mass migratory flows from the new to the old member states”. In the document drawn up by the Executive it emerges that, “with an average economic growth of 3.75% per year between 1997 and 2005, these countries have registered better results than the old member states (2.5% in the same period)”. Yet “their unemployment rate, equivalent to 13.4%, continues to exceed that of the 15-member EU by 5.5 percentage points”.
