More than 70m people in central Europe will wake up on May 1st to find themselves citizens of the European Union. Eight countries in the region, along with the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta, will become the EU'S newest members. European laws will take precedence over national ones, customs codes will be replaced by the rules of Europe's single market, and Brussels will have the last word on matters ranging from competition policy and value-added tax to sex discrimination in the work place. Governments and firms have been hoping and planning for this moment since communism collapsed in 1989-91. With so much advance notice, big economic adjustments in the private sector have already taken place. Foreign direct investment has poured into central Europe in the past decade, drawn by a combination of low wages and guaranteed access to EU markets. A wave of new factory-building in the region may even have passed its peak, as the competition from China has grown stronger. Now the EU'S new members must move up-market, to lure higher-paid, higher-skilled jobs in service industries such as scientific research and information technology.
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