Using a Schumpeterian approach, this book views competitiveness as the outcome of rivalry and competition between industries of the three new and the old EU member states leading to the integration of the accession countries into the EU.

This book investigates the potential of the Spanish Sociedades Laborales (SLs) as an instrument of active labour market policy for re-turning the unemployed to the labour market and also the transferability of the scheme to other EU Member States.