Northern Ireland and EEC membership - an economic perspective

Abstract

The question to be asked about the impact of EEC membership for Northern Ireland is: how has a small peripheral regional economy, with an already difficult economic problem and having the lowest income level nationally and being a relatively disadvantaged area within the EEC, adapted to membership of a more competitive and advanced economic entity? The fundamental problem is to distinguish specific EEC effects from all other factors that have caused economic change. Among the latter are continuing civil unrest, international recession, inflation, changes in the value of sterling and national economic and financial stringency. These make any objective aggregate estimates difficult methodologically and very unreliable because of the complexity of the relationships involved. However, the problem can be looked at from an economic point of view and possible effects indicated on an a priori basis. This paper considers Northern Ireland's membership of the EEC within this economic framework and assess the effects of industry and agriculture and the financial transfer of resources as a benefit to Northern Ireland.