Impact of the Enlargement of the European Union on the Foreign Trade and Development of the New Members

One of the most important characteristics of the process of globalization is the creation of different regional economic integrations. The most developed regional economic integration in the world is the European Union. Since it was found, when six founder countries created the free trade area for coal and steel, European Union passed all the phases of development of the economic integration, through the customs union and common market to the economic and monetary union. Through the six waves of enlargement European Union has become the integration of 28 countries with over 500 million habitants. Every enlargement of this regional integration had an impact on the economic position and the development of both the old and the new members. The biggest increase in the number of members brought the 5th big enlargement of the European Union, when the number of the member countries increased in total for 12 countries, first for 10, and then for 2 more.

The effects of this enlargement on former soviet countries are specially interesting not only because of the number of the new members, but also because of the fact that these countries during the joining have also pass the process of the transition to the market economy.

The aim of this work is to examine the effects of the enlargement on the foreign trade of the new members, and the effects of the changes in foreign trade on the economic development of these countries. The analysis of the effects of joining the European Union could be interesting for the countries which strive to become members of this economic regional integration.