Poverty and Income Inequality - Impacts of the EU-enlargement on social unprivileged population groups in the EU-15 Countries

Abstract

The European Union is a community of 15 sovereign countries. In the year 1952 France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg decided to establish the European Coal and Steel Community. The aim of this paper is to discuss the two problems with regard to the expansion of the European Union. These problems are poverty and inequality in income distribution. Usually when people talk about such issues they primarily think about the prospective member states. We are not going to discuss the situation within the new member countries. The purpose of this paper is to change the perspective and focus on poverty an income inequality in "old? EU-15 countries. To be more precise, the focus lies in analyzing the influence of the expansion on the old 15 EU countries.