Hilary Beech
Chief Executive Officer of CEPR

Observers of the European economy find themselves faced with a particularly rich context at the present time. Against the backdrop of a global economic slowdown, with sluggish growth in many of Europe's economies, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal have been given more time to balance their books by the European Commission, a relaxing of the rules of the rigorous Stability and Growth Pact. Meanwhile, the Commission has recommended that the ten front-runner accession candidates be allowed to join the European Union. Fears that the Irish people might derail this long-planned enlargement effort by voting against the Treaty of Nice proved unfounded when the "Yes" campaign triumphed on October 19th. Now, the real challenges of defining a realistic plan for integration of so many new member states lie ahead. Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing continues to lead the European Convention, responsible for proposing new ways of adapting and renovating Europe's institutional and political framework, not only with the enlargement in view, but also in part to allow Europe to exert a stronger influence in the governance of the global economy.

CEPR's researchers - nearly 600 distinguished economists working on issues pertaining to Europe and the European economy - are hard at work bringing analysis based soundly in fundamental economic theory to bear on the policy questions raised by these recent developments. In this inaugural online version of our long-running print newsletter "European Economic Perspectives" (EEP), we highlight several pieces of recent work.

In Policy Paper 9, "Who's Afraid of the Big Enlargement?", CEPR researchers examine the policy concerns associated with the accession of new member states to the European Union. They argue that enlargement provides an opportunity to reform labour, structural adjustment and social policies so as to ensure that the benefits of expanding the Union are realized. Readers may also be interested in "Nice Try: Should the Treaty of Nice be Ratified?" in our "Monitoring European Integration" series. The authors criticize the Treaty, but provide specific "emergency repairs" that could be implemented at or before the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference. Upcoming publications in this series will address both the European Convention and the future of the Stability and Growth Pact.

Policy Paper 8, "Making Sense of Globalization", was written under a grant from the European Commission. This report aims to marshall and analyze the economic evidence pertinent to assessing the effects of globalization on developing and developed economies, and drew on the expertise of distinguished researchers from several of our programmes for a cross-disciplinary view of the issues. We hope this publication will inject a new level of rigor into a debate that has all too frequently been characterized by hand-waving assertions, and will provide the foundations necessary for further analysis of the role the European Union might play in shaping the world economy and global governance. Residents of the European Union are permitted to register for a free electronic copy, by emailing orders@cepr.org.

We hope that this new online format for "European Economic Perspectives" will further expand our audience, and offer current readers a more timely and accessible way to stay in touch with the Centre's activities. Each month, EEP will bring you leader articles profiling our most recent research findings, interviews with senior figures in our network, summaries of the month's Discussion Papers (annual output is now about 550 papers), the monthly update to our EuroCOIN™ indicator on the state of the euro area economy, highlights of recent press coverage, and updates about the Centre, including new grant awards and research initiatives, upcoming meetings and publications. I hope you will find this to be a useful resource and that you will choose to subscribe to receive the monthly email reminder alerting readers to each new edition. Meanwhile, I encourage you to explore this month's issue, and to share your feedback with us at eep@cepr.org.

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