Separately, we expect the result of a referendum in Ireland on the Nice treaty to be known by the end of October, and a repeated rejection of the treaty could complicate EU enlargement.
The Czech Republic wants to close its enlargement negotiations with the EU by the Copenhagen summit (December 12, 2002), but a delay is possible due to agricultural issues. The first wave of EU enlargement (including the Czech Republic) is widely expected at the end of 2004.
So far domestic equities seemed to be unaffected by EU-enlargement-related news; the 2004 date seems to be to a largely priced into Czech blue chips.
Jiri Soustruznik