This report explores some features of the social dimension of enlargement regarding the Southern EU-Member countries, namely Portugal, Spain and Italy. Economic theory suggests that integration may affect wages, employment and income distribution through changes on trade, FDI and migration...

After joining EU, the accession countries are expected to join the EMU and the euro-area. This cannot take place immediately after EU enlargement, as prior joining euro-area the accession countries should apply to the European Commission for entering EMU stage three and fulfil Maastricht...

This paper reviews the macroeconomic policies and performance of the three Nordic EU countries. The experiences of Denmark, Finland and Sweden from the turbulent economic developments of the 1990s and from adjusting their public sectors to fiscal consolidation are illustrating, not least for the...

This regional input analyses recent developments and future prospects of fiscal policy (part I) and monetary policy (part II) of Benelux, France and Germany (EMU-5) covering the period of 1997-2004. The fiscal policy part concentrates on budgetary effects of the eastward enlargement. Besides,...

The recent outset of European Monetary Integration with the introduction of a unique currency and a full centralization of monetary policy together with the increasing integration of global capital markets, stimulated a large body of research on monetary policy rules. Since Lucas' critique, the...

Such an exceptional event as the creation of the EMU and the euro has not had happened never before. The most common challenges concerning EMU and the euro are: fiscal policy making, monetary policy making, euro area being a non-optimal currency area and the political legitimacy of EMU. It is...