New members give a lift to the EU economy

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"New members give a lift to the EU economy

The newest and poorest countries in the European Union have helped the bloc's economy to become more competitive in the past two years by outperforming some of its longstanding members on economic policy improvements, according to a report published Wednesday. The report by the World Economic Forum, published every two years, ranked Denmark, Finland and Sweden as the most competitive economies in the 25-member EU, followed by the Netherlands and Germany.

But several of the 10 countries, mainly in Eastern Europe, that only joined the EU in 2004 are rapidly moving up in the rankings, led by Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, according to the report, which evaluates progress in achieving a wide range of economic targets set by EU leaders at a summit meeting in Lisbon six years ago. By contrast, Italy, one of the founding members of the EU, now lags behind all new members except Poland."