Istituto di Economia Internazionale - Integration Doughnut or a Hole? Economic Effects of European Union Enlargement on its Eastern Member Countries 2001-2025

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Corresponding Author:
Miroslav N. Jovanović, University of Geneva, Global Studies Institute, Dušan Sidjanski Centre of Excellence in European Studies, Switzerland

Coauthors:
Paskal Zhelev, Department of International Economic Relations and Business, University of National and World Economy, Sofia - Bulgaria

Integration Doughnut or a Hole? Economic Effects of European Union Enlargement on its Eastern Member Countries 2001-2025

Volume 79 - Issue 3, August 2026
(pp. 277-342)
JEL classification: F13; F15; F50 Doi: 10.65644/EIIE.079.03.0277
Keywords: European Union; Eastern Enlargement; Central and Eastern Europe; New Member Countries; Economic Integration

Abstract

The European Union (EU) hails enlargement as one of its greatest successes, promising prosperity and convergence. Yet, two decades after the eastern enlargement, worthy economic results are evident, as well as cracks. While accession spurred growth and wealth, it also entrenched structural vulnerabilities – rising debt, demographic collapse and deepening internal disparities. The East was expected to catch up with the ‘old’ EU countries. GDP per capita has slowly converged, but much of it remains locked in a dependent model, with skilled labour flowing westwards, while financial obligations mount. Using a structured statistical analysis rather than econometric modelling, this paper exposes the uneven realities in the EU membership. Integration has lifted national economies, but widened gaps within them, concentrating wealth and opportunity in capital cities while rural and industrial peripheries lag. Meanwhile, the EU’s own cohesion is fraying, burdened by crises, militarisation, policy contradictions and enlargement fatigue. As candidate countries in the Western Balkans and the Black Sea region consider their EU future, important lessons emerge.

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Integration Doughnut or a Hole? Economic Effects of European Union Enlargement on its Eastern Member Countries 2001-2025

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Institute for International Economics of the Genoa Chamber of Commerce

Institute for International Economics
of the Genoa Chamber of Commerce