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This introduction summarizes the pathways up to and the experience of membership of the European Union of five recent member countries: Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, all of which acceded in 2004 or, in the case of, Romania, in 2007. Key economic and domestic political developments as well as changes in public attitude to European integration are addressed using a comparative pattern; in addition, future research priorities are outlined in the hope of encouraging further academic and policy-oriented study both in the respective member countries and on the European scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The enlargement of the EU in 2004 and 2007 to the post-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe brought an encounter between two distinct ‘trade union worlds’ in terms of attitudes towards European integration. Unions from the old EU Member States want to defend their existing national standards, while those from Central and Eastern Europe have nothing to defend and look for solutions at EU level. I ask whether it is possible for the European Trade Union Confederation to realize a trade union vision of ‘Social Europe’ based solely on the perspectives of the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we explain the politics of euro adoption in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland? How did the euro crisis influence their positions regarding euro adoption? This article builds on the domestic politics literature and argues: (i) countries that had joined the Exchange Rate Mechanism-2 early had an easier time adopting the euro compared with those that did not; (ii) having a pro-euro government is a necessary but not sufficient condition to adopt the euro; (iii) the political ideology of the ruling elites is important; (iv) the existence of veto points in the domestic political system influences the entire process; (v) although the three countries have made central banks technically independent, the appointment process remains highly political and complex, which has led to conflicts between the central banks and the governments - negatively influencing euro adoption policies; and (vi) the issue does not have much salience in public opinion and thus does not usually feature high on the agenda of the political elites in the three countries. These three countries to date have not adopted the euro for various domestic political reasons. They have at different times been laggards by default or laggards by choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to analyze how European integration and, especially, changes in ownership, has affected banking efficiency in Central and Eastern European countries which have recently experimented this process more intensely. Using a stochastic frontier approach, applied to panel data, we have estimated bank efficiency levels in a sample of 189 banks from 12 countries during the period 2000 to 2008 and we have analyzed the influence of some bank characteristics on these efficiency levels. The results show that European integration has significantly improved the cost efficiency of banks in these countries, but profit efficiency has significantly decreased. We have found very small differences between different ownership types and only a very small impact of foreign ownership on cost efficiency, showing that the entry of foreign ownership is not enough to explain the significant variations in banking efficiency after the accession.

The aim of this study is to analyze how European integration and, especially, changes in ownership, has affected banking efficiency in Central and Eastern European countries which have recently experimented this process more intensely. Using a stochastic frontier approach, applied to panel data, we have estimated bank efficiency levels in a sample of 189 banks from 12 countries during the period 2000 to 2008 and we have analyzed the influence of some bank characteristics on these efficiency levels. The results show that European integration has significantly improved the cost efficiency of banks in these countries, but profit efficiency has significantly decreased. We have found very small differences between different ownership types and only a very small impact of foreign ownership on cost efficiency, showing that the entry of foreign ownership is not enough to explain the significant variations in banking efficiency after the accession. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2004 and 2007, twelve New Member States (NMS) joined the European Union (EU), causing several changes in the field of agriculture. One of the major changes was the transformation of the national agri-food trade. The aim of the paper is to analyse the effects of the EU accession on the NMS agri-food trade, especially considering the revealed comparative advantages. The results suggest that the intensity of the NMS agri-food trade has increased significantly after the accession, though there was a serious deterioration in the NMS agri-food trade balance in most cases. It has also become evident that the NMS agri-food trade was highly concentrated by country and by product, though the concentration has not changed significantly after the EU accession. Moreover, our analyses highlight one of the most important characteristics of the NMS agri-food trade structure -- the focus on the agri-food raw materials in export together with the agri-food processed products in import. As to the NMS agri-food trade specialisation, the diversity among member states becomes apparent. Almost all countries experienced a decrease in their comparative advantage after the accession, though it still remained at an acceptable level in most cases. As for the stability of the comparative advantage, the results suggest a weakening trend, underpinned by the convergence of the pattern of revealed comparative advantage. By estimating the survival function to the sample, it can be observed that the accession has radically changed the survival time of agri-food trade, meaning that the revealed comparative advantage has not turned out to be persistent in the period analysed. From the policy perspective, there is a clear need for structural changes in the NMS agriculture and agri-food sector in order to tackle the negative tendencies of the national agri-food trade. The most important long-term goal should be the production and export of higher value-added processed products based on domestic raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reaching a sustainable level of nominal convergence is a requirement for all new European Union Member States (NMS) in the process of euro adoption, without it being impossible to join the euro area. The increased importance of nominal convergence, together with an advanced level of real convergence, seem to be for the European Union institutions, including the European Central Bank (ECB), a necessary and sufficient guarantee for entering into the European Monetary Union (EMU) without any additional subsequent problems. However, it is not clear the manner in which a country is or is not selected for entering into the EMU, the decision-making process being insufficiently transparent, some countries have been unprepared from the economical point of view, but have been accepted (e.g. Greece), while others have been rejected due to a lack of credible and sustainable convergence of some criteria (e.g. Lithuania). Thus, this article proposes an analysis of the fulfillment of the nominal convergence criteria through a personal methodology presented in other previous studies. It aims at facilitating the understanding of the extent to which the NMS are convergent in the context of the current economic and financial crisis. The article does not propose an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but it can be a good starting point for the evaluation of the European Union old Member States' (OMS) nominal convergence, especially since in these countries it currently occurs a public debt crisis (e.g. Greece, Italy, Spain). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]