Financial System and Business Activity in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, And Slovakia‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Study Countries In 2004 ten countries were admitted to the European Union and in January 2007 two additional countries were admitted. Each of the new EU members has a unique background, culture, and economic outlook, but each has now committed itself to economic convergence with the EU. Part of the impetus for joining the EU is to improve domestic economic conditions by creating business relationships with the more prosperous current EU members. For most of the new EU countries the past 15 years have brought dramatic internal economic changes as countries have moved away from a command economy and toward a market system. Gaining access to the increasingly large EU market is viewed as an economic step forward.