Adaptability and Change The Regional Dimensions in Central and Eastern Europe

The recent crisis (some time ago we tended to write “of 2008-2009”, but nowadays we should refrain from displaying the ending date!) has become the most serious challenge for the Central and Eastern European countries after they had completed the process of post-socialist transformation and became the EU members. The negative impacts of recession in their most important international partners multiplied their own tensions and imbalances which – in some cases – have led to dramatic decline of the GDP and serious cuts in public spending and personal incomes. Keeping in mind all differences between particular Central and Eastern European countries we may say that they, on the whole, have met the challenges of the crisis bravely and effectively due to still great adaptability and flexibility of both their political elites and societies. They thus may become an example for some other EU Member States which currently struggle with economic difficulties and encounter strong social protests against necessary harsh economic measures. This book addresses the issues of the crisis and its aftermath in a more general setting, reaching beyond the recent crisis, both into the past and into the future, and also extending the discussions beyond the New Member States to countries in the greater European continent.