ABSTRACT
Since the foundation of the EEC in 1957 there has been an ongoing process of deepening and widening of economic integration. This process was accelerated in the 1990s through the introduction of the Single European Market (SEM) and European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which culminated in the introduction of the euro. Simultaneously, with the collapse of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), a process of enlargement of the EU, which was unprecedented in scale, was set in motion, which culminated with the accession of ten new member states (NMS) into the EU in 2004.
