Acquis implications on the companies and insurance institutions from the Central and Eastern European countries

The European integration process becomes more and more a reality for the Central and Eastern European countries. Thus, on the 1st of May 2004, ten other States became members of the EU, eight of them being from the Central and Eastern Europe. At 1 January 2007, now we know certainly, the European gates will be wide-open for Bulgaria and Romania, the number of country members being 27. A huge economic and social potential is created, due to the increasing number of State members (counting from 15 to 27), and implicitly, to the extension of the European Union territory (a growth of 30% is registered); due to the population growth rate of 30%, reaching a total amount of 478 million inhabitants, the equivalent of the same number of consumers within the economic sphere; due to the increasing rate of GDP of about 4.5% etc. There are multiple advantages generated by the integration process for the autochthonous economic environment, the most visible ones being: the easy access on an extended market; a greater transparency of business activities; a high rate of direct foreign investments; a great stability at the macroeconomic level; long term development etc. Despite the numerous advantages that the integration process implies, the expansion process of the European Union may determine a growth of the total cost generated by the risks to which local corporations from the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are submitted. Abiding by new governmental decrees introduced to obtain the matching of the national legislation to the acquis communautaire, represents a difficult and expensive process, but the costs resulting from the non-compliance may be more important. Thus, if business corporations from CEE intend to secure against the risk of non-compliance to the European legislation and to reduce the impact resulting from previous legislative changes, it is essential to understand and to consider certain risk areas made evident and carefully exploited by insurance companies; the present paper aims to point out this idea.