Transition economies, such as the countries in Southeast Europe, face an expeditious institutional transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. The state withdraws from its monitoring function, which results in institutional voids that affect the economy in general and small and...

Before joining the EU in May 2004, Central and Eastern European countries were required to professionalise their civil services. Most were perceived as having made improvements sufficient to be granted EU membership status. But what happened next? Five years after accession, this paper answers...

In the new member states of the EU which have not yet adopted the euro, previous adoption strategies have come under scrutiny. The spillovers and contagion from the global financial crisis revealed a new threat to the countries’ real convergence goal, namely considerable vulnerability to the...

Two rounds of EU eastern enlargement will pose difficult economic and political adjustment problems. Based on recent analysis one also finds many opportunities for both the EU-15 and the accession countries which, however, face the negative spillovers from the Russian transition crisis. The...