While the consequences of becoming an EU member state for national policies are usually the core concern of pre-membership debates and of post-accession assessments, studies on the effects of European integration on the political systems of the now fifteen member states have so far been less...

Over the past ten years, the Central and Eastern European Countries have considerably increased their share in world trade as well as in the imports of the 15 "old" EU member states. The accession to the EU brings about trade creation and trade diversion effects. In the case of Austria, after EU...