The Commission’s fifth annual report on the Social situation in Europe forecasts the new Member States will become major drivers of economic growth and social improvement. Their key assets are well educated reserves of workers.
The report is the first to cover an enlarged EU of 25 Member States. Experience of past enlargements shows that although the EU is currently faced with more acute problems of poverty, deprivation and inequality, there will be a benefit over time.
The report makes clear that, notwithstanding their differences, all 25 Member States share core social values and concerns and are confronted with the same basic problems of demographic ageing, a shrinking working population and the need to reform pension and health-care systems.
Enlargement has not significantly changed the demographic map of the EU because the recent drops in fertility rates in CEE countries mean that the demographic patterns will converge with those of the EU-15.
Living standards are lower in the EU following enlargement. Nearly one in three people in the EU-25 earn less than 75 per cent of its average income per head and two-thirds of these people live in the new Member States and account for some 95 per cent of their population. However, relative levels of poverty are moderate compared to the EU-15. In addition, there is a fair degree of national social cohesion in most new Member States and many of them have well-developed social protection schemes.
