After the political upheaval in 1989, all central and eastern European countries have suffered a deep "transformation recession". The real gross domestic product shrank between 1990 and 1992 by approximately one fifth in the CEE states. The reasons for that production drop were the changes...

The eastern enlargement of the European Union provides Austria with the opportunity to expand to the fullest its political and economic relations with neighbouring countries. For Austria's economy, the enlargement would open new avenues of economic development, but it would impose also greater...

Austria's service trade with the CEECs is still hampered by high trade barriers. The EU's eastern enlargement should thus produce substantial integrative effects especially in the tertiary sector. In view of the competitive advantages enjoyed by Austria, particularly with regard to complex...

EU integration of CEE countries provides new development opportunities for all regions along EU's external frontier based on cross-border economic and regional policies. In the preparatory phase, an offensive structural policy should be supplemented by negotiations on administrative measures...

Austria's manufacturing particularly profited from the reforms in its eastern neighbour countries. A rise in exports to the neighbouring CEECs increased the net production value by about ATS 14 billion. The effects of an EU eastern enlargement will be even more pronounced, provided that the...

Agriculture is among the delicate items of the envisaged EU eastern enlargement. Major differences between western Europe and the Central and Eastern European candidate countries in terms of agricultural potential, agricultural structure, performance level of food industry, and agricultural...

In recent years, Austria's exports into several CEECs increased at double-digit rates. The increase in the importance of Austria's foreign trade with the CEECs is closely associated with the institutional, political and economic transformation process taking place in those countries. If this...

The Agenda 2000 of the European Commission and the state of play in negotiations imply that the current candidate countries are going to join the Union in two consecutive groups. This is why simulations for the 2002 to 2010 period, using WIFO's macroeconometric model, assume that the first group...