EU enlargement to the East
At 12 am Central European time on May 1, 2004 the EU will officially welcome 10 new full members. Although this day will not be remembered in history with the same emotion as the fall of the Berlin Wall, May 1 will be memorable for millions of people who lived under socialist regime as the day their counties finally severe the last link with their past of Soviet satellites, as the day they become part of the exclusive club of rich and powerful European countries.
While tomorrow will be full of excitement, the accession of the 10 will require the EU to deal with a number of issues. Although each of the EU candidates undergoes rigorous accession process of bringing their economic and political systems to EU norms, most former socialist countries still need to work on several fronts (using EU funding), such as: economic environment, rights of minorities, environmental protection, etc.
The EU itself needs to resolve issues with its Constitution, decision-making process and accession of new members. Other issues such as adoption of the EURO currency and free labour movements are also knocking on the door.
Bulgaria and Romania are on course for accession in 2007. Croatia will most likely join immediately after. However, there are fears that once the EU faces the difficulties with the accession of the first 10 new members, it will tighten the accession process for new candidates. So, who knows how soon the next EU enlargement will be.
Read more: EU counts down to historic moment, History in the making as EU grows, Q&A: EU enlargement, Enlarging Europe, Migration and EU enlargement, EU EXPANDS: Enlargement May Limit Development
Follow-up: New system 'may delay EU entries'

Sustainable Development Indicators

Should company success be measured only by its profits or should we also take into account the impact its activities have on the environment and society? You've probably heard the expression, triple bottom line. Here are some ways how governments and the private sector can measure that bottom line and their progress towards achieving sustainable development.

Review Paper on Selected Capital-Based Sustainable Development Indicator Frameworks
World Bank Measure on Wealth of Nations
UN System of Integrated Economic and Environmental Accounts
Dashboard of Sustainability
Living Plant Index
Ecological Footprint (my preference)

2001 Environmental Sustainability Index
Includes Country Rankings

Roundtable on Sustainable Development
Genuine Savings
Ecological Footprint

Measuring Sustainable Development
Genuine Savings

Measuring Sustainable Development
Ecological Footprint

Read more:
National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy
Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development

On Corporate Responsibility

Corporate responsibility represents a decision-making process where financial goals, personal values, social and environmental concerns are given equal consideration when making a business decision. To enforce or encourage socially and environmentally conscious behaviour, governments enact corporate, employment, environmental and social (e.g. equal opportunity or affirmative action) laws and regulations. However, not all aspects of business can be regulated. In such cases behaviour can be encouraged through pressure on corporate conscious by civil society, public opinion, and shareholders.

To assist in this process, the international community has developed guidelines that define corporately responsible behaviour. The generally accepted guidelines were developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises cover areas such as: general business practices, transparency and disclosure of business information to the public, employment and industrial relations, environmental protection and conservation, combating bribery, defence of consumer interests, scientific and technological issues, competitive practices, and taxation.

Although few governments have incorporated these principles in their law systems, unfortunately, the majority remain only guidelines and are self-enforced by Multinational enterprises (MNE). Most MNEs meet or slightly exceed local regulations or generally observed standard in developing countries in order to keep good relationships with local governments. But those national standards are often below international or even generally acceptable standards.

More needs to be done by the international community to encourage and enforce socially and environmentally responsible behaviour by Multinational corporations. This could entail applying public pressure on MNEs to factor in environmental and social costs to the community when calculating return on investment, or making sustainable development indicators a mandatory performance measure for businesses.

Out of Poverty
John Stackhouse
I highly recommend the book of John Stackhouse, a Globe and Mail development issues reporter based in India. It is a book about development projects gone wrong but also of how poor people from India, Africa, Indonesia, and Bangladesh have taken their future in their hands, changing the world.

On Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development is all the rage these days but what is it? The most common definition is development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This definition was first published in the Brundtland Commission's report Our Common Future in 1987. This report prompted the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Rio Summit delegates adopted an action plan for the pursuit of sustainable development: Agenda 21. In 2002, in Johannesburg, the world's progress was assessed during the World Summit on Sustainable Development: Rio+10.

Read more: Rio Cluster on UN proceedings, UN Commission on Sustainable Development, Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Report of the UN Conference on Environment and Development

The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World
by Hernando de Soto
If you were wondering how de Soto arrived to the his great ideas included in The Mystery of Capital (see post of March 13, 2004), you should read his previous book: The Other Path. In The Other Path, the author provides an analysis of Peruvian informal economic activity, the reasons why it exists and its costs to society. He again sees a historical parallel between Peru in the 20th century and European societies in their era of merchantilism. De Soto's suggestion for a way out of merchantilism is:
First, "to tackle existing institutional problems in order to remove the obstacles which currently prevent formals and informals from integrating", which means simplification of laws and regulations, decentralization of the decision making process, and deregulation; and
Second, "to tackle future institutional problems, which would involve changing the way in which we [Peruvians] make laws".
If you would like to review the technical aspect of de Soto's and the Instituto Libertad y Democracia's analysis of Peru's informal economic activity, read "Technical and Statistical Compendium to the Other Path".

The Invisible Hand in Economics and Politics
by Milton Friedman
I found this lecture very intriguing not only because of the eloquent argument of the Nobel prize laureate in economics in favour of free market and against government intervention but also because of his explanation of the existence of government intervention. He uses the research on the influence of public opinion on government policies by A.V. Dicey, a British constitutional lawyer, to explain the waves of government intervention in history. That got me pondering on the signals out there that indicate the formation of a strong public opinion in favour of increased international development aid and whether it is strong enough to soon influence the development of government policies that affirm the commitment of developed countries to international development. As you know to achieve the UN's Millennium goals more aid is necessary. Developed countries agreed to increase their aid to 0.07% of their GDPs but only a few countries have come close to this goal.