Research On The Impact Of Enlargement Upon European Union’s Economic Policies

In 2004, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta officially joined the EU and in 2007, Romania and Bulgaria joined later, which marked the largest enlargement in EU’s history.EU’s enlargement is distinguished from its previous expansion, first of all, the large amount of new member, different from the previous expansion involving one or two countries and maximum, the expansion in 2004 took in ten countries at the same time. Second, the low level of development of the new member states, some of the countries which joined the EU earlier also fell behind a little, but their overall economic development were close to the average level of the EU’s existing members, however, the countries involved in eastward expansion economic were more backward in their economic level; Third, the economic system of the new member states have a wide gap with the original members, the new member states are mostly transition countries, the EU’s old members are all of market economies, the accession of these "heterogeneous" members will full y impact on the EU.In its many influence, this paper selected the economic policy of the EU as the object and study the impact of eastward enlargement on these economic policies. Choosing this object is concerning that the economic policy is the institutionalization of economic integration, and it is related with the EU’s deepening and development.In academic field there is no lack of specific economic policies of the EU, but systematic study of its economic policy is still in a lack. This may be due to the complexity of economic policy and uncertainty of objective conclusion, so it hardly to be studied in a particular research paradigm, but need to break the disciplinary boundaries, in a broader context of research subjects to achieve a comprehensive theory. Therefore, this paper comprehended the related researches paradigm and genre theory, tries to construct a theoretical framework and under the guidance of the analytical framework, expand the systematic analysis on economic policy, to further verify the correctness and validity of the framework. Around the above theme, this paper focuses for the following studies:(1) Analyze the EU economic policy-related content, established research paradigm and analytical framework based on various theories; (2) Detailed analyze the impact and underlying causes on economic policy which affected by the EU Enlargement; (3) Study the changes and adjustment of the economic policy after East European Union’s enlargement,, summarize the evolution of the law policy.This paper in consist of the introduction and six chapters.The first chapter is the introduction, which includes the research background and significance, literature review, on this basis, theoretical basis of the paper, the main content, and structure of the arrangements and lack of innovation are proposed.The second chapter, the theme of EU economic policy and theory paradigm are discussed here. EU economic policy is rich in content, and after the core policy clearly studied, this chapter aims from the start of economic policies, draw two motives of the economic policies:The interests of efficiency and configuration tools, to further sort out various theories to determine the theoretical tools of policy efficiency analysis is integration of international economics theory, and the theoretical tools of interest distribution is regulation economy theory,public choice theory of political, and other new.Finally, the efficiency of this set is benefit analysis framework. Economics focus on efficiency analysis, while political economy focus on the interests, and thus should also be binary paradigm, that of economics-Political Economic Research.ChapterⅢ,the formation of EU economic policy and its impact of enlargement, in this chapter firstly it reviews the process of European economic integration and the evolution of economic policies, then analyzes the economic effects of EU economic policy, and finally describes the process of EU enlargement, general analysis of the Enlargement of the EU economic policy.Chapter IV to VI it begins to analyze the influence of several major economic policies by the EU eastward expansion.Chapter IV explores the impact of EU’s eastward enlargement on the common market policy and foreign trade policies. An important achievement of the European Union is that it established a common market; eliminate internal trade barriers among member countries to achieve free movement of elements in the regions, and also foreign unified tariffs. EU treaty clearly stipulates the goods, persons, services and content of free capital flows, new member states must comply with these policies and regulations after the accession that is the abolition of all tariff barriers strengthening customs cooperation and accession to the EU standards. Because the efficient function of these policies, the implementation of policies will lead the regional allocation of resources and increasing in welfare. New and old EU member states are the same on the objective function, no ambiguity in the policy arrangements, but only set transition period for individual goods and services. In the foreign trade policy, EU enlargement means that the world’s largest customs union of the rules automatically extend to the 12 new member states, the EU eastward shift the focus of trade policy, trade policy should be within the demands of the interests of new member states and strengthened trade protectionism.Chapter V the influence of eastward expansion on the euro and EU monetary policy. Common currency and monetary policy is the main features why it is different from other integration organizations, of the euro’s movements and the effectiveness of monetary policy are related with the deepening of integration organization, the accession of 12 new member states is bound to impact on the euro and monetary policy. In order to ensure stability of the euro, the EU provides new members can not immediately join the euro; the EU’s standards must be met before their accession. An arrangement for such a policy is conducive to the improvement of the efficiency of EU economy. In addition, the new member states join the European Union has also affected the single monetary policy, it not only increased the subject, the economy’s lagging behind the new member states, so that there is a single partial failure of monetary policy, monetary policy and member of the Financial policy coordination is also facing difficulties.Chapter VI studies the impact of the eastward expansion on the EU budget policy. Economic well-being which was Obtained through the integration of the EU may be not share equally by each member and each region, in order to achieve the EU’s overall growth and reduce economic disparities between EU member states, the of benefits need distribution and adjustment. EU’s budgetary policy, the Common Agricultural Policy and structural policies is belonging to such benefit distribution policy. Before the EU’s enlargement, these policies have internalized the benefits of the original members’s demands,after the enlargement, the original pattern of interests is broken and needs to be adjusted to integrate the interests of new member states demand, due to the diversity and difference in the interests of new member states,demands of between the old and new member states come to meet more contradictions and conflicts of interest, therefore, the overall changes in these policies are in large shape. Firstly this chapter studies the impact of Enlargement on budget revenue, and then study the research based on Common Agricultural Policy and structural policies, of the impact of budget expenditure, further analysis the underlying causes of budget policy’s changes caused by, and in the end forecast budgetary policy of European Union in the future.The third part, Chapter VII mainly discuss the impact on economic policy decision-making of the eastward expansion mechanisms’economic policy decision-making mechanism was originally developed for the six member states, and after the enlargement, along with the increasing number of Member States, the EU’s decision-making body more and more bloated, policy decisions-making yet became more and more difficult To overcome these difficulties, the EU institutional reform and mechanisms for improvement. This chapter firstly introduces the EU’s economic policy decision-making organization, and their status and roles in the economic policy, study the restructuring and change caused by eastward expansion, and analyze the impact of the decision-making body movements. Secondly, the chapter describes the EU’s decision-making mechanism and the difficulty caused by eastward expansion of the,study the reform of decision-making mechanism of the European Union to get out of the woods and further analysis of the efficiency raising of decision-making policy.Based on these studies, the main conclusions drawn:Economic policy involves the improvement of efficiency and benefit configuration, analysis on economic efficiency should be a combination of analysis and benefit analysis. Economic policy of improving the efficiency changed little in the expansion of integration since the objective function of old and new members are consistent; and to the economic policy in obvious effect of the distribution of benefits, because the objective function is not consistent member, the accession of new members has greater impact on it.