The European Union's Economic Integration and Business

In the late 6th century some very smart persons said that there is nothing permanent except change. This wisdom seems to be very obvious for citizens of the new member states, given their rich and fascinating history, especially in the recent decades when rapid political, economic and social changes have been taking place. As recently as at the end of the 1980s – many countries in Central and Eastern Europe were still behind the iron curtain, with little political and economic freedom. Today, they are members of the European Union with established democracies and functioning market economies. In some years they are expected to become members of Economic and Monetary Union. As we know the economic integration in Europe has already quite some history. After establishing a single market in the early 1990s, the integration culminated in 1999 with the introduction of the euro in initially 11 EU Member States, which were joined by Greece in 2001, and with the conduct of a single monetary policy by the ECB. The trade links among current EU members have increased considerably in recent years- economic integration in Europe has also provided new opportunities for investment with a noticeable increase in capital flows in recent years. The very important is the fact, that economic integration, the process through which countries of the EC grow closer together, has been a central aim of the EC since the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. …