This study examines how the distribution of income across persons, regions, countries and larger geographical areas in the EU has changed in the dawn of the enlargement of the EU. It focuses especially on the effects of trade liberalization, the welfare states and the regional cohesion policy...

The latest enlargement of the European Union has had the effect that people showing considerable differences in their standard of living have been united into a common social unit. The aim of this paper is to gain some insight about the extent to which social inequality in the EU has increased...