Cross Border Economic Convergence and EU Integration Process

Abstract

The real benefits of integrating different economic areas and regions into one common economic, monetary, and sometimes also fiscal area are among the most important issues to be resolved because the win-win situation for all participants should prevail unless the Member States or local authorities lose their interest in further participation. In this study, we compare the speed and the real benefits of economic integration between the three groups of Member States that emerged following the last big EU enlargement. The first group is composed of the so-called old EU Member States. The second group represents the countries that achieved full membership in 2004 (the so-called new Member States), and in the third group, there are the countries that are now in the negotiation process for EU membership. We then draw from the experience of these new Member States to derive implications for a possible new round of EU enlargement. The conclusion of this paper is therefore supposed to be some kind of direction for the new candidate countries. The results offer an answer to the question of what degree of convergence the new EU10 Member States reached within certain macroeconomic fundamentals during the period of their accession negotiations. Keywords: • economic convergence • EU integration • transition economies • integration • EU accession • economic trends