The political ramifications of the European Union's expansion to the east have been far-reaching: for enlargement was one of the reasons behind the drafting of a new constitution (to help the Union cope institutionally with more members) and one of the reasons why that constitution went down to referendum defeats last year in France and the Netherlands (where voters feared job competition from the east). But enlargement has proved a solid economic success, according to a report published by the European Commission two years after eight east European countries plus Cyprus and Malta joined the Union.

Naturally, enlargement's benefits are bigger for the new EU-10 - which represent less than 5 per cent of total EU gross domestic product - because its impact on them is so much larger. The newcomers have all seen their national income, trade and inward investment accelerate, as one would expect. But this has not been at the expense of the older member states, whose fears, says the commission, are "not justified". The EU executive finds little overall evidence of jobs being moved east (though Peugeot's decision to shift car production from the UK to Slovakia is one sign of this) and is generally dismissive of the argument that lower tax rates in the east are distorting investment within the EU.