Conclusion: Insiders and Outsiders

Abstract

People, in their various guises, have been the focus of this book. As the EU has developed its activities during its first 50 years, the lives of the people in the member states have been affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the policies enacted in Brussels. These changes have impacted differently in each member state depending upon factors such as the state of the economy, the degree of compliance and the existing national provisions. For example, Panah demonstrated in Chapter 4 that the arrival of Wal-Mart on the European scene brought advantages to those consumers and producers who were in a position to respond positively to the new climate. Small producers, however, fared less well. Similarly, the CAP has protected EU agricultural producers from the vagaries of world markets while increasing the instability for agricultural producers in the rest of the world as Hatt has discussed in Chapter 9. In both these cases, the ‘insiders’ have been the principal beneficiaries while the ‘outsiders’ have been less well served.