Economic Situation in Bulgaria after EU Accession Essay Example for Free

Economic Situation in Bulgaria after EU Accession Essay Bulgaria has passed a long way between the fall of communism, transition to market economy, and up to EU accession that has become the culmination of Bulgarian economic transformation. Undoubtedly, Bulgarian economy has substantially benefited of becoming a full member of European Union. Despite the fact that Bulgaria does not have sufficient experience in managing various marketing processes, the whole process of transition from Central European priorities to European integration has been smooth and mostly positive. In this work, we will critically examine the impact of EU accession on Bulgarian product and labor markets, agriculture, and FDI. We expect that profound multifaceted analysis of Bulgarian economy will help determining the major economic benefits and problems of Bulgarias accession to EU. Historical background Before the end of the 1980s – the beginning of the 1990s, Bulgaria has been one of the largest communist states in Europe. After the general collapse of socialism and communism in Europe at the edge of 1990s, Bulgaria faced a choice between integration with other Eastern European countries or the developed Western Europe. In distinction from Romania and Hungary, Bulgaria was not characterized by high income per capita or its economic openness to foreign trade relations. However, Bulgaria was well known for its excellently trained workforce and well developed labor markets (Bevan, Estrin Grabbe 23). Bulgaria was characterized by high level of government involvement into economic affairs, and Bulgarian authorities had to develop new strategies for eliminating government intrusion into the newly formed free markets. In general, Bulgaria has experienced relatively smooth transition from dissolution of communism to the development of well-organized market oriented structures. At that time, most of the initiated processes, such as privatization, were postponed, and a series of new problems arose including the substantial damages to infrastructure and housing, a rapidly growing number of refugees, and a breakdown of trade and capital flows (Anusic Rohatinski 48). By the end of the 1990s, after the deep economic crisis of 1997, Bulgaria managed to resolve all economic issues, and to become prepared to further accession into European economic structures. Economic profile Since 2002, the European Commission has considered Bulgaria as one of the best performing market economies in Central Eastern Europe. Since 2006, useful steps were taken to contain the external deficit. The privatization process and the liberalization and restructuring notably of utilities have well advanced. Some additional progress has been made in improving the business environment and reducing non-wage labor costs (Baldwin Portes 127). Currently, Bulgarian GDP per capita equals to â‚ ¬7500 (32. 1% of the EU-25); economic growth: 6. 7% in 2007; inflation rate: 4. 9%; unemployment: 11%; government budget surplus: 2. 7%; exports to EU countries: 68% of total exports; imports from EU countries: 59% of total imports (Davidova, Gorton Ratinger 303). It is expected, that by the end of 2008, the total economic output of Bulgarian markets will further increase 0. 4% (Davidova, Gorton Ratinger 303). EU Accession and Product Markets After accession to EU at the beginning of 2007, Bulgaria has acquired additional opportunities and resources for further trade liberalization with European partners. Bulgaria has ultimately entered the Single Market; the administrative barriers to trade with the rest of Europe have been eliminated or reduced to levels that were acceptable among other EU members. Bulgaria had to re-consider the system of its external tariffs and to adopt it to the new European requirements; as a result, the tariffs have been liberalized compared to those exercised by Western European towards other third tier countries. The discussed tariff liberalization has seriously contributed into trade diversification and the growing portion of more expensive EU suppliers in the trade structure of Bulgarian economy. Bulgarian product markets have not only acquired free access to European trade potential; they have also been involved into European Structural Funds. This participation has reduced the risk of default for Bulgarian economy by almost 33%; consequentially, numerous political risks have also been reduced (Lejour 22). EU membership has greatly constrained arbitrary trade policy and indirect tax changes. It has locked in well-defined property rights, has codified competition policy, state-aids policies, and has secured open capital markets and right of establishment, assuring investors that they could put in and take our their money (Bevan, Estrin Grabbe 87). Here, we should pay more attention to the economic affects of Bulgarian accession to the EU internal markets and its trade effects. Lejour has developed a mathematical model for calculating the specific trade effects of EU accession onto various sectors of Eastern European economies. In terms of Bulgaria, Lejour has revealed the most promising trends within agriculture, food processions, textiles and apparel. Similar economic emphases have been made for Romania, Poland, and Hungary (Basci, Togan Hagen 54). Furthermore, Hungary and Poland have promising perspectives in Transport equipment and transport services with the rest of EU members. However, at the edge of Bulgarian accession to EU, the country has already experienced substantial liberalization of trade relations with Europe; 62% of Bulgarian exports were already distributed among other EU member countries (Basci, Togan Hagen 32). As a result of such preliminary trade liberalization, the net effect of accessing the EU market for Bulgaria has almost equaled zero. In distinction from Bulgaria, Hungarian GDP growth has been additionally increased by trade effects of EU membership. The abolition of trade barriers with old EU members has boosted Hungary trade. The countrys trade performance was impressive given the increased competition posed by its EU membership (Baldwin Portes 134). This is not the case with Bulgaria: the country has not experienced any trade boost, and there can be several reasons for that. First, we have already mentioned the effects of pre-accession trade liberalization with EU (exports from the European Union was increasing 6. 4% annually, to finally achieve 68% of total Bulgarian exports). Second, Bulgaria has spent only 18 months as a full EU member, and many positive long-term economic effects have not yet become visible. However, Bulgaria faced a challenge in the form of intensified import competition that has somewhat lowered inflation and has weakened European-directed domestic macroeconomic policies. It is expected that with further integration to Common Agricultural Policy and Single European markets Bulgaria will acquire additional opportunities for expanding its trade. In terms of agriculture, EU accession is anticipated to triple the total amount of trade, and to increase exports to other European and non-European countries by more than a third (Davidova, Gorton Ratinger 307). In general, EU accession has developed stable confidence among the major Bulgarian trade partners towards Bulgarian economic environment and economic relations with the country. As with the other EU members, EU accession has and will result in further GDP growth within Bulgaria, with the subsequent impact on general EUs GDP. EU Accession and FDI Foreign Direct Investment has played special role in Bulgarian economy. For Bulgaria, FDI growth was critical to further promote restructuring processes within all sectors of Bulgarian economy. FDI has been particularly important for privatization and developing the confidence of investors towards Bulgarian economic environment. In this context, Bulgarias accession to EU has become the turning point towards further liberalization of all economic areas. It has been important to finance the acquisition of plants and equipment and the transfer of technology (Fiala 189). Before Bulgaria entered EU, the country could not boast high FDI inflows. Compared to other European countries, Bulgaria was lagging behind its major Eastern European partners – Croatia and Hungary. In Croatia, FDI inflows accounted for â‚ ¬2,800 per capita, while Hungarian FDI inflows equaled to â‚ ¬3. 7 billion in 2004 immediately after including Hungary into the list of full EU members (Lejour, Mooij Nahuis 223). Although Bulgaria did not experience FDI growth equal to that in Hungary and Croatia, the level of FDI increase after EU accession has been substantial. In 2007 following EU accession, Bulgaria marked a record of FDI for the last decade. Since EU accession implies secure environment for investors, it is not surprising that an estimated â‚ ¬1,790 per capita entered the country in 2007 (Lejour 49). Surprisingly or not, but Bulgaria and Romania have been among the states the least likely to be included into EU before 2015. This is why in this research numbers are less important than the quality of the emerging investor relations within Bulgarian financial structures: EU accession has significantly increased transparence of the financial and investor relations between Bulgaria and member (non-member) states. Similar situation has also been reported in relation to Hungary and Romania (Fiala 192). EU Accession and Labor Markets â€Å"While FDI, GDP growth, exports and inflation have developed evident positive tendencies since EU accession, unemployment has had ambiguous development† (Feldman 218). Currently, Bulgaria has one of the highest unemployment rates among EU state-members. For example, Hungary has been experiencing the rising rates of unemployment that have later reached 7. 2% in 2006 (Anusic Rohatinski 90). At that time, Hungarys unemployment rates were average for Europe, but the highest in the region. After EU accession of Bulgaria, its unemployment rates have gone up to 11% (Kolev 30). As a result, thousands of workers have set up their minds to reach other more developed labor markets. Simultaneously, â€Å"following EU accession Bulgarian perennial low labor participation and long-term unemployment showed positive signs† (Kolev 31). It is expected that by the end of 2008, Bulgaria will be able to decrease long-term unemployment to 9% (Kolev 34). EU accession has resulted in the emergence of new open labor markets which Bulgarian workers could easily reach. Migration is characteristic of all newly accepted EU members, and with unfavorable employment prospects for Bulgaria, other European states had to adopt a set of restrictive measures, to decrease the growing inflow of Bulgarian (and Romanian) workers into more developed EU states. â€Å"Member States do, however, have discretion to restrict migration of workers for up to seven years. The UK government chose to impose restrictions for an initial two-year period, to be reviewed on an annual basis. Low-skilled Bulgarian and Romanian nationals may only apply to work as seasonal agricultural workers or on sector-based schemes. † (Feldman 221) Bulgaria’s accession to EU has causes the two significant impacts on Bulgarian labor markets. On the one hand, immigrants have already created a â€Å"small net gain in terms of per capita income to Bulgaria† (Feldman 218). On the other hand, EU accession and the comparatively slower rates of Bulgarian economic development have already distracted large labor flows from Bulgarian towards other international labor markets. Although the net impact of Bulgarian migration has not been fully analyzed, the examples of other EU countries suggest that migration can undermine the stability of Bulgarian economy after EU accession: for Hungary, migration of local workers has resulted in 2% productivity decrease; in Poland and Czech Republic, productivity has fallen 3% (Basci, Togan Hagen 138). Researchers estimate that in the nearest 3 years current migration patterns will decrease Bulgarian economic productivity 3-5% (Feldman 222). Certainly, Bulgarian workers are willing to work for lower wages compared to those European countries pay to their citizens. As a result, accession of Bulgaria to EU creates serious pressures on other domestic labor markets. Here, Bulgaria should address its economic and labor misbalances, to promote equal labor opportunities for its workers, and to prevent the negative impacts of Bulgarian migration on other European economies. EU Accession and Agriculture Bulgarian agriculture has perceived the biggest and the brightest impact of Bulgaria’s accession to EU. EU accession has â€Å"significantly impacted the agricultural and food sectors because of its integration into the Single Market and its adoption of the Common Agricultural Policy† (Davidova, Gorton Ratinger 304). Since the beginning of 2007, Bulgarian agricultural sectors have faced a challenge due to the absence of appropriate state support of livestock business. The first payments from the common European budget funds have reached farmers by the end of 2007; before that, Bulgarian farmers had to deal with the growing financial uncertainty and restrictions put on payments from national budget funds (Davidova, Gorton Ratinger 305). However, Bulgarian economy and EU have been able to resolve all agricultural market issues. Between 2008 and 2010, Bulgaria will receive total â‚ ¬4. 3 billion to support its internal agricultural policies, to create cohesion funds, and to further promote effective agricultural policies within and outside Bulgarian economy (Davidova, Gorton Ratinger 309). Conclusion During the first 18 months of Bulgarias membership in EU, the countrys economy has not been able to fully perceive long-term benefits and failures of its accession to the Single European market. However, EU accession has already created multifaceted impacts on all economic sectors, among which labor and agricultural markets have been influenced the most. It is expected that in the two-three years Bulgaria will be able to stabilize its economic relations with Western Europe, and to benefit of opportunities which EU market opens to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Works Cited Anusic, Z. Z. Rohatinski, Z. A Road to Low Inflation: 2003-2006. Zagreb: Government of Republic of Croatia, 2007. Baldwin, R. E. Portes, R. â€Å"The Costs and Benefits of Eastern Enlargement: The Impact on the EU and Central Europe†. Economic Policy, vol. 24 (2007): 125-70. Basci, E. , Togan, S. Hagen, J. Macroeconomics Policies for EU Accession. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007.

Lightning Never Strikes Twice :: essays research papers

Lightning Never Strikes Twice A few miles off the cost of Cape Cod, sits the island of Nantucket. On this island, during the 1600’s lived the Haley family. Tom Haley was the only tobacco farmer on the island and due to this fact they were extremely wealthy. Their estate was the largest on Nantucket and was located right over a beautiful cliff. Tom and his wife Janice ate breakfast every morning at 6:00am everyday with their son Garnet. Late Thursday night a storm was getting very close to their house until a bright fist from the heavens stroked down on their chimney and collapsing the house, killing the entire Haley family. As the legend of the family goes their souls were not able to escape the rubble and float into the sky. Therefore their soul will inhabit the house until their able to escape. Their souls will reside there until they find another soul to watch over the house. Three months ago. Steve Windmere a wealthy young CEO of AT&T is driving around Nantucket looking for a new house to settle in. When he comes across the most beautiful house he has ever seen. He loved every bit of it from the aged gray shingles to the pealing paint off the white shutters. With a happy surprise he sees a Murrey’s real estate sign. As fast as he can he looked at the address, "52 Cliff road" he says to himself. He rushes to his car and drives to Murrey’s real estate office on Main Street. He signs up to buy the house right away. Of course everyone working there has a greedy look in his or her eyes while Steve signs the contract. Being so self-centered as he is he doesn’t even notice. Steve could smell the sweat falling from the agents. They were so nervous most of them had to leave, they couldn’t believe that they were actually going to sell the old Haley residents. When he was finished he stepped out on to Main Street and sa w a mysterious man sitting up against the brick wall of the real estate office. The mysterious man got up and walked toward Steve and said, "looks like you just bought more than you bargained for." Laughing he walked away into a fog that seemed to appear out of nowhere, confused and baffled Steve just walked across the street to Something Natural to have lunch.

Do popular men’s consumer magazines represent the modern woman of today fairly and accurately?

I am using two highly popular men's magazines Zoo and Loaded in this essay to show that nowadays modern woman are being perceived in the incorrect way. It is fair to say that those magazines are popular because Zoo sells 260,000 just on a weekly basis and Loaded has an average circulation of 237,000 monthly. Combined this has a total of 497,000 consumers who are regularly being shown the opposition to a fair or accurate representation of the modern woman. Firstly the masthead Zoo implies that the women in the magazines are as pathetic as wild animals in the zoo and they have just been put there for the benefit of male consumers to have access to watch without any restrictions. Now the masthead loaded suggests money is more of an importance to men than a woman is – basically saying women should be used and then erased from memory. Neither of these mastheads represent modern women accurately or fairly because a modern woman should be more intelligent and confident to deafened themselves in they are being referred to as wild animals in the zoo or worthless possessions. The feature photos on both magazines show women; sexually available, loose and seductive. Reason why i say this is in both feature photos the models have false expressions excessive make-up, heavily exaggerated breasts and revealing clothing. The connotations of all this is these women are slapper, they are easy, not very intelligent and do not value themselves because if they did they would not sell themselves in aid to an old mans boredom. These models are artificial and rely on their body parts to make a living. In the Loaded feature photo there are three people but only two of them – which happen to be female, are dressed inappropriately yet the male gets away with having to expose his body. It seems as if they have been dolled up just to be purchased by 50 cent who has then gone and posed one on each side like a pair of watches that he owns – they may as well have price tags. Even though in the Zoo feature photo there is only one model the still message is still being sent out it is quite difficult to comment on her clothing as she is wearing next to nothing but this highlights that she is sexually available. She is giving the sort of eye contact as if she is enchanted by the consumer and that she is property of their when they buy the magazine which would give off the message that she is sexually open. So again I say that the feature photos on both magazines are poor representations of modern women because modern women have high expectations so they dress more appropriately, smartly and would not feel the need to display vast amounts of flesh to look attractive they also want t be more natural and not plastic – for having to adjust the whole of their body just to take a picture. The puffs which are included in Zoo are terribly alarming. Ne of them reads, Britain's hottest college model disrobes. These kind of remarks make the public believe even younger girls who are underage are up for sex which is a total mistruth . the target audience which these magazines are aimed at is eighteen to thirty so i do not see why they should be interested in any school girl. Another puff says ‘celeb abbess back in uniform' it baffles me that the school uniform theme is so popular in men's consumer magazines this just undermines school girls and again supposes that underage girls are sexually available. Both of these puffs do not represent modern women accurately or fairly because a modern women should be more reserved, would be more sensible in securing her sex life and would not under mime her education in that way. Finally I would like to conclude this by saying that men's consumer magazines may not represent modern women accurately, yet they do represent them fairly. I have come to realise that the models with are on the feature photos are hard working women the job they do is not compulsory, so in some ways it is an achievement and a lot of other women would aspire to be in their position and see them as roll models. They independently make a living and are self reliant. I would also like to point out that these women are courageous because they have the confidence to dress and to exactly what they want knowing that they are going to be dishonoured by some people. People do not recognize it but these women are impressive representations of modern women.

Treaty of Paris 1898

The Treaty of Paris (1898) was the peace treaty signed on December 10, 1898 by Spain and the United States that ended the Spanish-American War. The terms of the treaty also ended the age of Spanish imperialism and established the United States as a world power. Key Takeaways: The Treaty of Paris The Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, was a peace agreement between Spain and the United States that ended the Spanish-American War.Under the treaty, Cuba gained independence from Spain, and the United States gained possession of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.Marking the end of Spanish imperialism, the treaty established the United States’ position as a world power. The Spanish-American War The 1898 war between the United States and Spain came after three years of fighting by Cuban rebels to win independence from Spain. Happening so close to the coast of Florida, the conflict in Cuba transfixed Americans. Concerns for U.S. economic interests in the region, along with the American public’s outrage over the brutal tactics of the Spanish military spurred public sympathy for the Cuban revolutionaries. With tensions between the U.S. and Spain growing, the explosion of the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898 brought the two nations to the brink of war.   On April 20, 1898, the United States Congress passed a joint resolution acknowledging Cuban independence, demanding that Spain abandon its control of the island, and authorizing President William McKinley to use military force. When Spain ignored the U.S. ultimatum, McKinley implemented a naval blockade of Cuba and called for 125,000 U.S. military volunteers. Spain declared war on the United States on April 24, and the U.S. Congress voted to declare war against Spain the next day.   The first battle of the Spanish-American War was fought on May 1, 1898 in Manila Bay, where U.S. naval forces defeated the Spanish armada defending the Philippines. Between June 10 and June 24, U.S. troops invaded Cuba at Guantanamo Bay and Santiago de Cuba. With the Spanish Army in Cuba defeated, the U.S. Navy destroyed the Spanish Caribbean armada on July 3. On July 26, the Spanish government asked the McKinley administration to discuss terms of peace. On August 12, a cease-fire was declared with the understanding that a peace treaty must be negotiated in Paris by October. Negotiations in Paris   Peace negotiations between representatives of the United States and Spain began in Paris on October 1, 1898. The American contingent demanded that Spain acknowledge and guarantee the independence of Cuba and transfer possession of the Philippines to the United States. In addition, the U.S. demanded that Spain pay Cuba’s estimated $400 million national debt. After agreeing to Cuban independence, Spain reluctantly agreed to sell the Philippines to the U.S. for $20 million. Spain also agreed to pay back the $400 million Cuban debt by transferring possession of Puerto Rico and the Mariana island of Guam to the United States. Spain demanded that it be allowed to retain possession of the Philippines capital city of Manila—which had been captured by U.S. forces hours after the August 12 cease-fire had been declared. The United States refused to consider the demand. Representatives of Spain and the U.S. signed the treaty on December 10, 1898, leaving it up to the two nation’s governments to ratify it.   Pages 8 and 9 out of 19 pages comprising the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War. Spain relinquished Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States in exchange of payment of $20,000,000. Spain also agreed to assume the $400,000,000 Cuban debt.   Corbis Historical / Getty Images While Spain signed the agreement days later, ratification was strongly opposed in the U.S. Senate by senators who viewed it as instituting an unconstitutional policy of American â€Å"imperialism† in the Philippines. After weeks of debate, the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on February 6, 1899 by a single vote. The Treaty of Paris took effect on April 11, 1899, when the U.S. and Spain exchanged documents of ratification.  Ã‚   Significance While the Spanish-American War had been short in duration and relatively inexpensive in terms of dollars and lives, the resulting Treaty of Paris had a lasting impact on both Spain and the United States.   While it suffered initially from the terms of the treaty, Spain eventually benefited from being forced to abandon its imperialistic aspirations in favor of focusing on its many long-ignored internal needs. Indeed the war resulted in a modern Spanish renaissance in both its material and social interests. The post-war period in Spain saw rapid advances in agriculture, industry, and transportation over the following two decades.   As Spanish historian Salvador de Madariaga wrote in his 1958 book Spain: A Modern History, â€Å"Spain felt then that the era of overseas adventures had gone, and that henceforth her future was at home. Her eyes, which for centuries had wandered to the ends of the world, were at last turned on her own home estate.†Ã‚   The United States—whether intentionally or not—emerged from the Paris peace talks as the world’s newest superpower, with strategic territorial possessions stretching from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Economically, the United States profited from the new trade markets it gained in the Pacific, Caribbean, and the Far East. In 1893, the McKinley administration used the terms of the Treaty of Paris as partial justification for annexing the then-independent Hawaiian Islands. Sources and Further Reference â€Å"Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain; December 10, 1898.† Yale Law School.â€Å"The Spanish–American War: The United States Becomes a World Power.† Library of Congress.McKinley, William. â€Å"The Acquisition of the Philippines.† U.S. Department of State.de Madariaga, Salvador (1958). â€Å"Spain: A Modern History.† Praeger. ISBN: 0758162367