National Human Development Report Estonia: 2000

The potential accession of Estonia to the European Union presents a serious challenge not only to the governmental and economic structures of the State of Estonia, but also to the capacity of society to adjust and develop. Based on this premise, the main theme of this Report is the comparison of Estonia and other European countries with regard to the main aspects of human development. Although in the broad sense Estonia has joined the group of high human-development countries, based on a number of indicators it lags far behind advanced European countries (Human Development Report, 2000). How is Estonia affected by the pending accession to the European Union? What are the human developmentrelated barriers to successful Euro-integration?