An Evaluation of Austria's EU membership

After four years of membership in the European Union, an interim balance can be drawn as follows: Austrian businesses and the country's economic policy had to adapt to the new regime of the single market. This meant on the one hand that the government had to cede economic policy competences to the Community in the fields of foreign trade, agriculture, competition and regional policies. On the other hand Austria, as the fourth-richest EU member state, is a net payer to the EU budget of 0.4 percent of its GDP. Implementation of the internal market in Austria is still incomplete in many fields. Liberalisation has only just started in the telecoms and energy markets. The central effect of integration on competition caused by its participation in the single market is reflected in an increase of overall economic productivity, which in turn has stimulated economic growth, improving the cost position and pushing down prices. EU membership appears to have raised real GDP by about 2 percentage points, in cumulated terms, over the past four years. The price effects were less strongly visible than had been expected before Austria joined the EU. Productivity increases and a slower pace of employment in the public sector in the wake of integration made for more muted employment growth. Participation in the internal market caused imports from the EU to grow at a faster pace than Austrian exports into the EU. There was little room for improving Austria's market share position in the EU single market. Overall welfare appears to have risen by about 1.3 percentage points of GDP, partly as a result of price cuts, partly due to intensified imports from the EU (trade creation effects).