EU Enlargement: The Impact on Southern Europe

UC Berkeley IES scholars joined together with scholars from the University of Rome Laboratorio di Economia Politica Internazionale/Istituto Affari Internazionali this summer for a two-part workshop to discuss the impact of EU enlargement on Southern Europe. The first meeting was held in Rome at the Istituto Affari Internazionali. It provided the participants—all of whom have studied extensively the economic and political implications of European integration—with an opportunity to consider how southern Europeans view the enlargement of the European Union. In the Rome meeting, participants considered the impact of formal EU enlargement to include the countries of central and eastern Europe. In the Berkeley meeting, held on July 13, 2002, participants considered the growing connections between the EU as a whole and other regions of the world.

Formal enlargement of the European Union to the east contains a number of contentious issues for southern Europeans (Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece). First, these countries are major beneficiaries of the EU's main redistributive programs, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and structural funds. The entrance of relatively poor central and eastern European countries—several of which have large agricultural sectors—would redirect these resources away from southern Europeans. Second, enlargement would further shift the center of gravity of the EU to the north and east, reducing the voting power of the southern European bloc and, more intangibly, perhaps changing the "cultural" character of the Union itself.

The expansion of European Union relationships and influence with other regions of the world also holds both opportunities and difficulties for southern Europe. Growing ties with Latin America and the southern Mediterranean in particular have given Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece a chance to take the lead in forging multifaceted relationships with non-European countries with whom they have special affinities. However, with respect to the Maghreb countries in particular, several southern European countries have been caught between the demands of Maghrebis to increase trade and aid relationships and the demands of their fellow EU members to tighten their borders to illegal immigration. As the EU's outward orientation continues to evolve, these issues will likely take an increasingly central place on the European agenda.

The participants considered these and other related issues in the meetings, giving specific attention to the interests of the key southern European actors involved, including businesses, trade unions, and national and European policymakers. The purpose was not to generate a particular publication or set of recommendations, but rather to inform the participants' work on their related projects on the implications of EU expansion.

Participants
Paolo Guerrieri, Laboratorio di Economia Politica Internazionale, IAI
Vinod K. Aggarwal University of California, Berkeley
Nicholas K. Biziouras University of California at Berkeley
Irene Caratelli, IAI
Beverly Crawford, University of California at Berkeley
Rafaelle Farella, IAI
Edward A. Fogarty, University of California, Berkeley
Lelio Iapadre, University "L'Aquila"
Marina Maiero, IAI
John Ravenhill, Edinburgh University
Sandro Sideri, University Bocconi/Instituto Orientale di Napoli

IAI Laboratorio di Economia Politica Internazionale
Workshop Internazionale

Mercoledì 22 Maggio, ore 15,30
Panel:

• Vinod Aggarwal
  Università di California, Berkeley, USA
• John Ravenhill
  Università di Edinburgo, UK
• Beverly Crawford
  Università di Calfornia, Berkeley, USA

Chairman: Paolo Guerrieri
Università di Roma 'La Sapienza' e IAI

Nel Workshop verranno discusse le reazioni delle maggiori aree geo-economiche ai drammatici attentati di New York e Washington e verranno delineati alcuni scenari per il futuro dell'economia mondiale.

La lingua di lavoro sarà l'inglese