Onderzoek: bedrijven in nieuwe lidstaten slecht voorbereid op toetreding (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With just over a week until enlargement, more than two in five businesses in new member states have not started complying with EU law, according to a new study published on Friday (23 April).

The survey, conducted by Eurochambres - the European business confederation - revealed that 41 percent of businesses had not yet started preparing to adopt the EU acquis communauataire - the vast body of EU law that runs to 1000s of pages.

Amongst new member states, businesses from Estonia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are best prepared to adopt EU law.

But Lithuania is bottom of the pile - over half of the businesses surveyed have not yet begun to adopt the acquis.

Despite this apparently blasé attitude towards EU law, businesses tend to be optimistic about their future prospects in the EU. Just under nine out of 10 businesses support enlargement of the EU and six in ten are optimistic about their future business prospects.

But not all businesses from accession countries are pleased with the way accession negotiations have gone. In some states (Czech Republic, Latvia and Poland), less than half of businesses surveyed said they were "satisfied" with the results of the accession negotiations. And the level of satisfaction declined in all but one country from last year.

Hopes and fears

The greatest advantage of joining the EU, according to businesses completing the survey, is an increase in competition in their home markets along with easier access to other EU markets.

But they also worry about lack of access to finance followed by marketing problems.

Arnaldo Abruzzini, the Secretary General of Eurochambres said, "The survey shows an improving situation. But there is still a need for action".

Eurochambres surveyed over 4000 businesses in the 10 accession countries except Cyprus and Malta.