enlargement, EU accession, Europe, Macroeconomics and macroeconomic policy, CASE Reports, CASE Network Studies and Analyses

Fiscal Consolidation in Central Europe in Preparation for Accession to the European Union

Introduction

The European Union eastern enlargement is a realistic, politically and historically determined task. Both the governments of countries having association agreements with the EU and the European Commission have expressed a desire to draft programs that will enable these states to join the EU in the future. Some fundamental directions of strategies of preparation for accession to the Union were indicated by the EU Copenhagen Summit and reinforced by the White Paper on "Preparations of the Associated Countries of Central and Eastern Europe for Integration into the Internal Market of the Union" (Commission of the European Communities, 1995).