Interactive guide to selected EU economic data
The Telegraph website has a useful interactive guide to a selection of data on member countries inside the European Union. Our chart shows indices for GDP and there is also information the allocation of EU spending by country, population size and density.
Norway - your guys take a lot of beating!
Roy Hattersley makes a rare appearance in the economics blog today. He has an interesting piece in The Times on the relative prosperity of Norway - a country that lies outside the European Union but which has negotiated access to the EU single market. With very low unemployment (of less than 3% of the labour force, super high per capita incomes, a sovereign wealth fund worth more than £250bn and continued strong revenues from oil exports, Norway is unlikely to test the waters of EU membership anytime soon. A good piece for students of economic integration in the EU.
Croatia and Iceland look to be in front line for EU entry
Croatian fans will be crying into their beers tonight with the news that they have failed to qualify for South Africa 2010. But their politicians seem to be making decent progress along the road to joining the European family of nations. The latest report on the progress made by countries seeking membership of the European Union suggests that Iceland and Croatia will be next in line to enter the EU single market. There is a report here from the Financial Times. And this article from the BBC reports the EU Enlargement Commissioner as saying that Croatia should complete entry talks next year.
Here are some links to previous blogs on EU enlargement
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Iceland votes to join the EU
Rocked by a financial crisis which led to the collapse of its currency and banking system, Iceland’s parliament has voted narrowly in favour of seeking accession into the European Union. This process is likely to take around 18 months, the EU is keen to fast-track Iceland into the single market. One of the main stumbling blocks will be negotiations over fishing quota and catch rules for the EU fishing industry within Iceland’s territorial waters. Fish and seafood accounted for 37% of Iceland’s exports in 2008. Will Icelandic accession be a great catch for the European Union?
Guardian: Will Iceland make it into the EU?
Europe Revision: Single Market
Revision notes on aspects of the EU single market
read more...»EU single market creaks under the pressure of the recession
Wolfgang Munchau has an important comment article on the fragility of the EU single market in todays Financial Times.
read more...»EU Revision: Challenges facing Eastern European Economies
The EU single market has enlarged on several occasions – the most recent being 2004 (ten new countries) and 2007 (two new countries). For many countries of ‘New Europe’ the accession into the EU has been an event of major economic and political importance.
Enlargement occurred during a period of strong economic growth (driven by fast-growing exports in an era of globalisation) and low inflation and interest rates. One can argue that this was an opportune time to widen the single market – macroeconomic conditions were favourable.
But progress made by new EU members has not been even – most have achieved a degree of income convergence and have managed to bring down unemployment levels. But there have also been underlying problems – notably property bubbles, rising inflation and the effects of depopulation as migrant workers from central and eastern European countries in particular moved west in search of work and higher incomes.
From late 2007 onwards the global credit crunch and ensuing international slowdown and recession has hit the EU hard. The Euro Area is export dependent (more so than the USA) and economic and financial difficulties have spread into many of the new member states.
This three page revision note is designed for students preparing for their EU paper this June.
EU_Revision_Eastern_Europe.pdf
EU Revision: UK Trade with the EU
UK trade in goods and services with fellow members of the European Union (EU) has deepened in the 36 years since we joined the European community. This revision note designed for A2 students taking the AQA paper looks at trade between the UK and the EU and in particular the fast growth of our exports of goods and services with the countries of ‘New Europe’. However the deep recession in the Euro Area is leading to a steep decline in the value of our trade despite a much more competitive exchange rate.
Student handout
EU_Revision_UK_Trade_with_EU.pdf
A European Supermarket?
The European Union Single Market commissioner has announced plans for a more systematic survey of price differences for similar goods and services across the 27 nations of the internal market. This BBC audio-visual clip from Mark Mardell is an excellent introduction to a teaching lesson on the causes of price divergence within the EU single market. Why is a litre of milk so much more expensive in the UK compared to Belgium. Why is a Nintendo Wii or a top of the range Nokia mobile phone significantly more expensive here than it is in many western European markets?
The EU believes that price convergence will be helped by giving consumers more information and that this transparency of prices might help to curb price discrmination by businesses that supply more than one country in the group of twenty seven nations.
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