A discussion is under way inside the European Union as to how many years are required before its new members will match the living standards prevailing in the rest of the now 25-nation EU

A discussion is under way inside the European Union as to how many years are required before its new members will match the living standards prevailing in the rest of the now 25-nation EU. Many economists predict that even those new members that have relatively strong economies will require at least 30 years to reach the per-capita income levels prevailing in Western Europe. Of the new EU members, Slovakia and three Baltic states are generally considered to be the fastest-growing economically. Each of them aspire to match the achievement of one of the oldest members of the EU, Ireland, which in the 1990s registered economic growth rates averaging over eight percent. Willem Buiter, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, says Ireland is a worthy model for the new EU members. "Ireland has done it. From being a poor west European country they are now a rich west European country, richer than the average west European country and richer even than Britain," he said. "But they had a number of factors working for them that are not present in Eastern Europe, the main thing being the demographics." Barbara Boettcher, an economist at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, agrees that the Ireland model won't be easy to emulate. "You won't see that in Eastern Europe," she said. "Eastern European countries, which are designed to be winners are those that have attracted a large share of the production oriented foreign direct investment, like Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic have done."