The above elaborated data certainly present a gloomy picture of the current state of relations between New Zealand and the states of the
acceding East European region.
If the
acceding country business cycle is correlated to a significant degree with the euro area, the costs to that country for giving up monetary independence may not be very high.
The
acceding countries should therefore give careful consideration to the timing of their ERM II participation.
TEI is concerned that the continued delay in issuing VAT registration numbers to businesses in the
Acceding Countries--and the lack of mechanisms to register non-established foreign businesses in those countries--will prejudice cross-border trade in the months immediately following 1 May 2004.
The Commission said that ISPA had helped the
acceding and candidate countries to strengthen their understanding and administrative capacity to implement key legislation.
European Commission President Romano Prodi has been in almost daily contact with the Prime Ministers and Presidents of the new Member States in order to agree the
acceding countries' proposed nominations for the post of European Commissioner in the six-month period before the new Commission takes office.
Among the
acceding countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia recorded the highest proportion of science graduates, with 11% and 9% respectively, and Hungary (2%) and Malta (4%) the lowest.
In the
acceding countries, the highest birth rate was found in Cyprus (11.
Unless the Member States and the
Acceding Countries relax the requirement to include a valid EU VAT number on an invoice, there is a risk of significant disruption of trade, especially business-to-business supplies, following accession.
An ASEAN official, who declined to be named, said that an Australian deputy minister has threatened to make an issue out of Myanmar's slow progress toward democracy, violence in Thailand's southern region and corruption in some countries if ASEAN does not stop pushing Australia on
acceding to the treaty.
And, he goes on, "the medium- to long-term prospects are better still": educational attainment statistics in the region are encouraging, public expenditure on education is high, and training of the current workforce is already at the same level in the
acceding states as it is in Germany and France.
The institutional framework that will govern the monetary integration of current and future
acceding countries was agreed in the accession negotiations, based on EU Treaty provisions, and is described well in the four papers.
