INTEGRATION EFFECTS AUSTRIAN ECONOMIC QUARTERLY 2/2010 165

Austria has been a member of the EU for 15 years. An economic reassessment of the integration effects is carried out against the background of the change in Europe's integration history since the "opening " of Eastern Europe in 1989. Since that time, EU integration has become deeper, with the creation of the Inter-nal Market and the subsequent introduction (albeit not yet in all member countries) of a common cur-rency. In 2004 and 2007, a big step of enlargement was taken. 15 years of EU membership have been to Austria's economic benefit. Real GDP growth has thereby been raised by 0.6 percentage points per year. All integration steps since 1989 taken together (opening of Eastern Europe, EU accession, EMU member-ship, EU enlargement), the integration bonus amounts to additional 0.9 percentage points of real GDP growth and 20,000 jobs per year