Winners and Losers of EU Integration

“The Czech capital market has not played an important role in the development of the Czech economy thus far. On the other hand… it has been used and often abused as a tool of wealth redistribution in the CR [Czech Republic], and has influenced the outcome of winners and losers of the transformation process to date.” Ten countries in Central and Eastern European (CEECs) have applied for membership in the European Union (EU). They could gain from exchanging lessons of experiences and best practices with each other as they address the common set of challenges in their preparation for EU accession. The “EU Integration” network of research institutes in the ten CEECs provides a valuable forum for such exchanges on key economic, social and political issues related to EU membership. This volume contains the papers presented at the first meeting of the EU integration network, as well as some background papers. The papers seek to identify the main economic, social and political groups that would gain or lose from accession, and highlight the policy adjustments on the parts of both the EU and the CEECs to ease the accession process. The contributors include researchers from the ten CEECs, as well as from current EU member countries. This publication will be of interest ot research institutions, governments, and nongovernmental organizations.