A Proposal for a Flexible Europe

From the economic point of view, the problems created by the huge differences in income levels between the applying countries (see Carius, Homeyer and Baer, 2000) are even more important. This is also true for the five Central and East-European Countries (CEECs), who in the opinion of the European Council are already meeting the requirements mentioned above, and with whom formal accession negotiations have started in March 1998, namely the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. They all have dramatically lower per capita incomes than the present EU members. Even Portugal, the poorest present member, has a per capita GNP of $11,010, compared to, for instance, Estonia with $3,360. The situation is even more extreme for the other five CEECs who applied for membership (Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia). Romania has a per capita income of only $1,410, and Bulgaria of $1,170.