Despite the political significance of completing the reunification of Cold War-divided Europe, this year's enlargement of the European Union creates few near-term economic benefits and poses major challenges for the region, an expert with a British institute told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Decades will be required for the 10 new members that joined the EU in the latest expansion in May -- most of them former Soviet bloc countries -- to close the income gap with their richer, older counterparts in Western Europe, said Paola Subacchi, head of the International Economics Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Subacchi was speaking at a symposium Nov. 12 at Keidanren Kaikan, organized by the Keizai Koho Center, under the theme, "Implications of the EU enlargement: is a larger EU a threat or an opportunity?"