Abstract
The Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) applied for EU membership in the early 1990s. In 1998, the European Union started the accession negotiations with the first candidate countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Estonia. In Helsinki, in December 1999, the European Council decided to start the negotiations with the last five CEEC: Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The integration of the CEEC in the European Union (EU) has been on the agenda of the EU since the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This leads to a process of promoting the system of market economies and the diminution of trade barriers between the EU and the CEEC through the Europe Agreements. With the increasing integration of national economies on the regional level, economic exchange is being liberated and is growing on the global level. The diminution of trade barriers is reflected in cost savings and increased efficiency, thus accelerating the economic growth rates of the participating countries. In other words, growth in trade between countries participating in the integration process does not always take place at the cost of trade with third countries, at least not entirely.
