Article by Ivo Alehno, Maksim Greinoman
Co-authored by Janne Kairo
The accession to the European Union will considerably affect the economic policy of the Government of any Accession State. The question of how much a State has to intervene in the market has not been answered similarly in all the existing EU Member States until now. However, due to a very complex interplay of different EU policies, the overall direction of the development of the markets in different EU Member States is becoming more and more similar. Under the need to be competitive with the US economy, the markets in the EU are gradually becoming increasingly deregulated. The important difference between the EU and the USA is, however, the fact that the market economy in the EU countries contains a strong social flavour. This implies two very fundamental issues; firstly, market economy, i.e. the State (and the European Community) protects market mechanisms against distortion. Secondly, the balancing aspect of social
