The economic landscape of the twenty seven member nations of the EU is very different. I find that students preparing for the AQA European economics paper often have little idea of the relative size of economy as measured by GDP. Five countries together account for 72% of EU27 GDP (Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain). Ireland - for nearly twenty years the Celtic Tiger but now in real macroeconomic distress - accounts for only 1.5% of EU GDP.

And if we add together the national income of

Romania Czech Republic Hungary Slovakia Luxembourg Slovenia Bulgaria Lithuania Latvia Cyprus Estonia and Malta

We get a ‘combined economy’ which contributes 4.7% of EU national income ..... equivalent to a country the size of the Netherlands!