Starting on 1st of May 2004, 11 countries in Central-Eastern and South Eastern Europe and in the Baltics (EU11) joined the European Union in three consecutive waves. Half a generation later, and a full generation after the start of transition in the region, we thought it would be opportune to...

This chapter offers a framework to analyse the impact of EU membership on economic ("means"), institutional ("ways") and social ("ends") convergence of EU11 countries to the frontier. It identifies the channels through which this impact works: trade, investment, finance, migration and...

We revisit the factors of convergence and growth in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe (CESEE). While the key elements that were driving pre-crisis convergence - rapid export growth, propelled by low wages, capital inflows and technology import, and catalysed by the EU accession - gave a...

This chapter analyses the dynamics of regional disparities in the member states that joined the European Union in or after 2004, excluding Cyprus and Malta (EU11). The analysis shows that while differences between countries have been shrinking, regional disparities in GDP per capita and...

This chapter analyzes the sources of Poland's unprecedented economic performance after 1989, when Poland became Europe's and the world's growth champion. I argue that this growth miracle was driven by five fundamental factors, including Poland’s accession to the European Union. All five...

In the first decade of EU membership, the Hungarian economy was unable to take advantage of the economic potential of the accession. The expansion of export markets and rapidly deepening financial integration opened up new growth opportunities, but the improved access to external financing...

This chapter discusses key macroeconomic trends in the Baltic states before and after their accession to the European Union in 2004. The countries have seen rapid economic growth, and the income gap with the EU countries in Western Europe has narrowed substantially. The convergence process has...

Bulgaria and Romania, the last two participants in EU's large Eastern Enlargement, joined the Union more than two years after the big Central European wave. This chapter presents an assessment of some of the changes that took place in the period after accession and also seeks to analyse to what...

Almost all non-EU CESEE countries have converged with Western Europe over the past three decades. However, the pace of convergence has been mixed. For non-EU CESEE countries as a whole, convergence has generally developed at a slower pace than for EU member states in the region.Econometrically,...