DETUROPE - The Central European Journal of Regional Development and Tourism 2025, 17(3):8-23

Central and Eastern Europe: 20 Years in the European Union

Szilárd Rácz^a,b, Ildikó Egyed^a, Réka Horeczki^a

^a ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies, 7621 Pécs, Papnövelde u. 22., Hungary

^b University of Pannonia, 8200 Veszprém, Egyetem u. 10., Hungary

The first part of the article outlines the unique development path of Central and Eastern European countries after their market economic transition, and the changing geo-economic framework conditions referred to as “externally-driven capitalism” or “dependent market economy”. Central European countries form a part of the so-called Central European Manufacturing Core and are strongly integrated in regional production networks. However, the region’s reliance on FDI and lack of indigenous innovation capacities have increased its exposure to the vicissitudes of the world economy. The lack of development convergence is compounded by the unequal distribution of economic benefits: the failure of regional policy to promote the settlement of new industries and sectors is explained by the fact that most regions in the countries under study belong to the most disadvantaged and lagging regions of the EU.
The second part provides a brief summary of the articles included in the thematic issue. The studies review a wide range of approaches to addressing the socio-economic challenges, spatial problems and processes of the region.
The discussion chapter presents CEE regions in the context of polycrises. This is followed by a review of the specific problems of CEE peripheral regions that are lacking scale and visibility on the European level, caught up in the unfinished process of convergence promoted by pro-growth Cohesion Policy. Finally, the paper concludes by outlining possible future research directions.

Keywords: regions, cities, borders, disparities, development, integration

Published: December 26, 2025  Show citation