This report examines the responses, initiatives and activities undertaken by national governments and the social partners in the EU Member States plus Norway in working towards a greener economy and maximising the job creation potential of this new area. The report looks specifically at various...

The collapse of the communist regime in Central and South-Eastern Europe gave way to sweeping economic and socio-political changes, marked by the conversion of centrally planned state economies into market economies, political liberalisation and democratisation, as well as to integration into...

This paper presents evidence for structural differences in economic growth dynamics between the current EU and the central- and eastern European accession countries. Two important results emerge from the analysis. First, accession countries have posted higher average growth and wider output...

The paper analyses the evolution of the trade specialisation pattern in the ten countries which will join the EU in 2004, by studying the dynamics of their comparative advantages over the period 1993-2000. The study finds that, although some countries are still broadly relying on natural...

We quantify the degree of persistence in unemployment rates of transition countries using a variety of methods benchmarked against the EU. In part of the paper, we work with the concept of linear u0093Hysteresisu0094 as described by the presence of unit roots in unemployment. Since this is...

This report provides an overview of the state of air quality in 13 central and eastern European countries involved in the European Union's Phare Programme. Based on EUROAIRNET monitoring network data for 1997 as reported by these countries, it also provides information on emission sources and...

The paper extends the standard intertemporal model of the current account to include two important stylised facts: (1) the persistence of current account positions and (2) the relevance of the fiscal balance. Specifically, the paper derives a closed form solution for consumption in the presence...

This paper deals with the discussion in Germany about job exports to the low-cost Eastern European members of the EU. It states that the critics of EU enlargement in Germany have overlooked that Eastern and Western Europe strongly differ in their capital formation and productivity levels. The...

The Environment for Europe process is a political framework for a wide range of initiatives that aim to improve environmental performance across the wider European region. This brochure describes the European Commissionu0092s contributions to the process and environmental co-operation in the...