Regional Economic Integration in Central and Eastern Europe and the Prospects for the Fifth Enlargement of the EU = Regional Economic Integration in Central and Eastern Europe and the Prospects for the Fifth Enlargement of the EU

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The beginning of the EC was regarded as insignificant. However, its scale and influence in the world economy have been continuously expanded. Although the EC was enlarged by the EFTA member states, it seemed to loose its potential of economic growth in the 1980s due to the Japanese economic expansion on the world markets as well as the close economic ties of the USA with the Asian nations. Under these situations, the EC succeeded in enlarging new member states such as Greece, Portugal and Spain in 1982 and 1986 respectively. With these new member states, the EC took new chances to grow further. With the new open policies of the former Soviet Union`s President, Michael Gorvachov, reformation processes in the East European nations started and resulted in the end of the Cold War in the whole European continent. At the same time, national economic interests became the most important agenda after conflicts of the two ideologies between capitalism and communism. This paper focuses on the processes of regional economic integration in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the prospect for the possible enlargement of the EU. It also argues about what are the main goals of the EU and why the EU attempts to expand further through the enlargement.