After an initial take-off during the first eight years following unification, the Eastern German economy started to stall and regress to its old growth path of the 1950s and 1960s. The initial quick convergence only compensated for the dismal stagnation that the expropriation and concentration...

Although the Treaty of Amsterdam has not lived up to the expectations of those who wanted a substantially stronger and more active European Union, it has expanded considerably the competences of the Union. In some policy areas such as social policy, it has added significantly to the obligations...