The regional challenge in Central and Eastern Europe. Territorial restructuring and European integration

Book abstract:

Paradoxically as nation states of Central and Eastern Europe begin to assert their independence, or perhaps more accurately their interdependence, the world in general is coming to terms with a new phenomena in politics - that is the rise in regional governance, most frequently within national borders but occasionally transnational. This book examines those aspects of Central and Eastern Europe and the tensions that might arise.

Chapter one introduces the work with background to the integration project and the territorial restructuring already happening, albeit reluctantly in some nation states. The influence of historical legacies upon the new nation states as they emerge from communist and soviet regimes is the focus of chapter two, whilst chapter three explores the potential or prospect of a western European model of regionalisation being adopted by the accession states. Chapter four explores the influence of European institutions in the development of regional policy within the candidate countries, and finds some elements that are in contradiction to that which is considered best practice in western regional development policy. Chapter five presents two linked case studies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia and seeks to establish the impact of EU pressure on their regionalisation policies. Studies in Slovakia and Poland are featured in chapter six which explores the potential efficacy of translation of western regional policy models to the CEECs and broadly reaches a sceptical conclusion on that probability. Social preconditions may run counter to the regionalisation policies of some countries and this aspect is examined in chapter seven. The constraints or otherwise of national boundaries and the transnational influences of minority ethnic groupings are considered in chapters eight and nine. The concluding chapter ten draws together the various arguments and explores the case for regional convergence and divergence within an enlarged EU, remaining sceptical as to the probable efficacy of EU policies in the CEECs in the face of predatory capitalism.

The work will interest scholars, students, policy researchers and makers engaged in the fields of regional development and urban studies, integration politics of the EU.

Michael Keating is Professor of Regional Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and Professor of Scottish Politics at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

James Hughes is Reader in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.