You are a civil servant from a country, which will soon join the European Union. Draft a report to a senior officer setting out your advice as to how your country should prepare for the following before becoming a member of the EU.
Title of Assignment:
You are a civil servant from a country, which will soon join the European Union. Draft a report to a senior officer setting out your advice as to how your country should prepare for the following before becoming a member of the EU.
- Maximising the benefits of the European single market;
- Joining the European single currency;
- Introducing new measures to address the EU's "democratic deficit";
- Ensuring maximum benefit from the common Agricultural policy (CAP) for agriculture in your country.
Date of deadline: 30/11/01.
Date of Submission: 30/11/01.
LIST OF CONTENTS:
SECTION 1: Executive Summary
SECTION 2: Terms of reference
SECTION 3: Main Report:
i) - Introduction
ii) - Maximising the benefits of the European Single Market
iii) - Preparing for the European Single Currency.
iv) - Addressing the EU's democratic deficit.
v) - Maximising CAP benefits for our home country.
SECTION 4: Conclusions.
SECTION 5: Recommendations.
SECTION 6: References:
SECTION 7: Bibliography.
SECTION 8: Appendices:
Section 1
Executive Summary
- The Berlin European Council has set out a clear framework for the financial aspects of enlargement. This framework provides a sufficient basis for the accession of up to ten new Member States in 2004.
- The European Council of Nice has defined the framework for the institutional reform necessary for enlargement. Negotiations are conducted on the basis of the existing acquis, applying the principles of own merits and catching-up, and will be concluded with those candidates that fulfil the criteria for membership.
- The conditions for membership set out by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993
Section 2
Terms of reference:
Main Body:
Introduction:
Accession requires that candidates fulfil the conditions for membership, that is the political and economic criteria, and the ability to take on the obligations of membership. The Commission will give a favourable recommendation on the accession of a country if it is convinced that it will be able to meet the criteria by accession.
Accession requires a massive economic restructuring and political change.
To strengthen public administrations and institutions so as to function effectively inside the Union. To promote convergence with the European Community's extensive legislation which would help reduce the transition period and aid the promotion of economic and social cohesion.
Source: EU Business Conference on Pre-accession instruments (Brussels, 5 March 2001)
Opening remarks by Commissioner Verheugen
The Europe Agreements cover trade-related issues, political dialogue, legal approximation and other areas of cooperation, including industry, environment, transport and customs. They aim progressively to establish a free-trade area between the EU and the associated countries over a given period, on the basis of reciprocity but applied in an asymmetric manner
and prepare the way for the EU and the partner countries to converge economically, politically, socially and culturally. They cover political cooperation, favourable trade relations, economic activities and cultural cooperation.
In addition to the liberalisation of trade, the ...
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Opening remarks by Commissioner Verheugen
The Europe Agreements cover trade-related issues, political dialogue, legal approximation and other areas of cooperation, including industry, environment, transport and customs. They aim progressively to establish a free-trade area between the EU and the associated countries over a given period, on the basis of reciprocity but applied in an asymmetric manner
and prepare the way for the EU and the partner countries to converge economically, politically, socially and culturally. They cover political cooperation, favourable trade relations, economic activities and cultural cooperation.
In addition to the liberalisation of trade, the Europe Agreements also contain provisions regarding the free movement of services, payments and capital in respect of trade and investments, and the free movement of workers.
Under the Agreements, the partner countries also commit themselves to approximating their legislation to that of the European Union, particularly in the areas relevant to the internal market. This includes applying legislation favouring competition and applying state-aid rulings, which are compatible with comparable legislation in the EU. Legislation will also have to be introduced which provides similar levels of protection to intellectual, industrial and commercial property.
Source: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement European commission. Regular reports 2001.
The benefits of our membership of the EU will be quite substantial, with the whole population benefiting from political, economic, social, environmental and other advantages. Though it must be remembered that membership of the European Union also requires obligations and commitments and a period of adjustment that will certainly cause some problems, overall, however, there is little doubt that the advantages of membership far exceed the disadvantages.
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Summary:
Joining the EU club will not occur without pain. Opening markets to tariff-free goods will no doubt introduce new competition and hurt some domestic companies. It will force them to become mean, lean, and efficient. On the other hand, the prospect of joining the EU offers the advantage of lucrative export markets. As goods are more competitively priced in the global markets.
Through the EU requirement of putting our economic house in order, there will also be a reaping the painful consequences of economic restructuring.
In the initial stages of economic reform, usually one faces a decline in economic growth, a steady rise in inflationary pressures, and an increase in unemployment.
The challenge for the current government is to convince the national citizens that the expected sacrifices and pains are worth the price. That is no easy task.
What is also needed is an outstanding and charismatic mobiliation with an appeal at both the domestic grassroots level and the international arena.
Pick from this about accession req.
b) Conclusions
a) Overall Developments
The legal and institutional framework needed for the functioning of a market economy, including enforcement of judicial decisions.
Privatisation of manufacturing enterprises is almost completed in many CEEC-10, Privatisation strategies have moved into sectors such as the utilities, transport and energy and are accompanied by efforts to restructure these sectors. In the financial sector, the bank privatisation agenda is
Bank independence from government:
Concerning the state-owned banks not intended for privatisation, it is important that governments do not interfere with their operating practices and credit policies.
The expansion of the financial sector has been accompanied by improved supervision in the banking sector, but supervision of the other parts needs to improve, not only on regulations but also on the administrative capacity and independence of supervisors.
Cumulative progress on economic integration of candidate countries in the EU has mainly taken place through the two channels of trade and capital flows, essentially foreign direct investment.
As to trade integration, in 2000, candidate countries on the average, sent about 62% of their exports to the EU and 58% of their imports came from the EU. Excluding Turkey, the shares are about 65% for exports and 62% for imports. Each of the CEEC-10 has over the period 1995 to 2000 increased its share of exports to the EU. Also as a group, they have increased their EU market share. Over the past decade, the CEEC-10 region shows the fastest growth in trade with the EU and accounted in 2000 for about 11 percent of total EU trade with third countries up from 6 percent in 1992. In the EU, the effects are greatest in the EU Member States closest to the region. The trade between candidate countries remains comparably low, although it slightly increased for several of the CEEC-10 in 2000 compared to the previous year.
The existence of a functioning market economy requires that prices, as well as trade, are liberalised and that an enforceable legal system, including property rights, is in place. Macroeconomic stability and consensus about economic policy enhance the performance of a market economy. A well-developed financial sector and the absence of any significant barriers to market entry and exit improve the efficiency of the economy.
The second criterion ('capacity to withstand competitive pressure and market forces within the Union') depends on the existence of a market economy and a stable macroeconomic framework, allowing economic agents to make decisions in a climate of predictability. It also requires a sufficient amount of human and physical capital, including infrastructure. State enterprises need to be restructured and all enterprises need to invest to improve their efficiency. Furthermore, the more access enterprises have to outside finance and the more successful they are at restructuring and innovating, the greater will be their capacity to adapt.
Overall, an economy will be better able to take on the obligations of membership the higher the degree of economic integration it achieves with the Union before accession.
3. Other obligations of membership
The Copenhagen European Council indicated that membership requires 'the ability to take on the obligations of membership, including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union'.
a) Adoption, implementation and enforcement of the acquis
The ability to take on the obligations of membership requires the adoption, implementation and enforcement of the acquis. The importance that candidate countries implement and enforce the acquis was underlined by the European Council on a number of occasions. In Madrid in 1995, the European Council highlighted the importance of adjusting the candidate countries' administrative structures in order to create the conditions for their gradual and harmonious integration. In 2000, the Feira European Council recalled that "progress in the negotiations depends on the incorporation by the candidate countries of the acquis in their national legislation and especially on their capacity to effectively implement and enforce it", by strengthening their administrative and judicial structures and their civil service.
Some countries still have difficulties in transposing parts of the acquis. Nevertheless, despite the progress made over the past year, the major need now consists of building up adequate administrative structures and strengthening of administrative capacity to implement the acquis.
c) EMU and the EURO
The framework of exchange rate strategies for the candidate countries has been clarified. Three successive stages in the transition process towards adoption of the euro, namely, the pre-accession stage, the stage following accession and the adoption of the euro are identified. Any unilateral adoption of the single currency by means of "euroisation" would run counter to the underlying economic reasoning of EMU in the Treaty, which foresees the eventual adoption of the euro as the endpoint of a structured convergence process within a multilateral framework. Therefore, unilateral "euroisation" would not be a way to circumvent the stages foreseen by the Treaty for the adoption of the euro.
Regarding the ERM-II, some time after accession, new Member States will be expected to join the ERM II. The ERM II could accommodate the main features of a number of exchange rates regimes, provided their commitments and objectives are credible and in line with those of the ERM II. The onlyclear incompatibilities vis-à-vis the ERM II that can be identified already at this stage are fully floating exchange rates, crawling pegs and pegs against
The chapters of the negotiations concerning agriculture and regional policy have important budgetary components and are related to the chapter concerning financial and budgetary provisions. Negotiations on these three chapters must therefore be conducted within a coherent overall framework.
The Berlin European Council in March 1999 agreed the financial framework for the period 2000-2006, including arrangements for enlargement based on the assumption that 6 new members would accede in 2002. The results were laid down in an inter-institutional agreement between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission.
The Berlin European Council has set out a clear framework for the financial aspects of enlargement. This framework provides a sufficient basis for the accession of up to ten new Member States in 2004. The European Council of Nice has defined the framework for the institutional reform necessary for enlargement. Negotiations are conducted on the basis of the existing acquis and will be concluded with those candidates that fulfil all the criteria for membership, applying the principles of own merits and catching-up