Firms apprehensive as EU prepares for new frontiers

EU expansion provides challenges and opportunities for firms in the new — and old — members, reports Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill.

BUSINESSES in the new EU states are ill-prepared for enlargement but no less so than firms in other countries when they joined, a study says.

However, the preparations the new members have been making will introduce a new level of competition for current members, says Paul Skehan, the deputy general secretary of Eurochambres which carried out the survey.