EU Enlargement Perspectives for
Slovenian, Hungarian and Austrian SMEs

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Authors: Andras GROSZ, Wolfram RHOMBERG
and Matei RUS

Published in: Vol.5 / 2004

      Between Slovenia, (West) Hungary (West Transdanubia) and its Austrian neighbour regions Styria and Burgenland, strong cultural and economic linkages exist, that have not only (re)increased during the last decade, but continuously have become even more intense with the integration of these neighbour regions into the common market of an enlarged European Union.
      The ongoing process of integration of these regions and the EU enlargement in particular as well as the fact that still a lot of SMEs in these three countries are insufficiently prepared for the challenges of the common market was the starting point for conducting two INTERREG IIIA studies1 that deal with enlargement and SMEs. One is focussing on the Slovenian-Austrian border region (Slovenia and Styria), and one is focussing on the Hungarian-Austrian border region (West Hungary and Burgenland). Both studies are carried out in close co-operation with a Slovenian (Institute for Entrepreneurship Research Maribor) and a Hungarian (Centre for Regional Studies Györ) research institution.