This book provides an up-to-date assessment of the main processes and dilemmas of regional development and regional policy in the newer European Union Member States in Central and Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries. It highlights the difficulties of balancing the demands within the new Member States for rapid regional growth and development with, firstly, the demands of the European Union overall that restructuring and development should conform to the aims and principles of EU common policies; and, secondly, with budgetary constraints. The book covers a wide range of issues, including global and national challenges to regional convergence and cohesion; regional dynamics, city networks and border issues; the effectiveness of policy responses at national and European levels, including an assessment of policy experiences from outside the new Member States; and likely future developments.

Introduction Part I: Central and Eastern Europe: The Dynamics of Development and Policy Responses 1. The Puzzles of Convergence: Europe's Economic History in the 20th Century - Witold Orlowski 2. The Competitiveness of Central and Eastern European Countries: An Analysis of the Legal Environment - Gyöngyi Csuka 3. Regional Development Dynamics in Central and Eastern European Countries - Grzegorz Gorzelak and Maciej Smetkowski 4. Challenges for National Regional Policies in the New Member States - Jirí Blazek and Marie MaceSková 5. Policy Lessons from the Reconstruction of East Germany - The Former German Democratic Republic - Wendelin Strubelt Part II: Metropolises Of Central And Eastern Europe: New Competitors Or Secondary Nodes Of Global Networks 6. The State of European Cities and the Positions of New Member States - Jan Maarten De Vet 7. Central and Eastern European Urban Regions and the Knowledge Economy - Hans Joachim Kujath 8. Metropolitan Functions of Warsaw, Prague and Budapest - Katarzyna A. Kuc-Czajkowska 9. Spatial Planning and City Networks in Economic Development: A Critique of the Polish National Development Strategy - Peter J. Taylor Part III: Border Location: An Impediment Or Opportunity For Regional Development 10. Economic Geography and European Integration: The Effects on he EU External Border Regions - George Petrakos and Lefteris Topaloglou 11. The European Union And Borders of Inclusion and Exclusion - James Wesley Scott 12. The Former Iron Curtain and the New Eastern External Border: The Impact on Spatial Development - Dóra Illés 13. International Communications and Borders Regions: Transcending the Problem of Scale On The Boundary Between Russia And The EU - Vladimir Kolossov Part IV: Central And Eastern Europe And The Eu Cohesion Policy Reforms: A Source Of Change Or A Defender Of The Status Quo? 14. Renewing EU Cohesion Policy - John Bachtler 15. EU Cohesion Policy: A Decline behind the Horizon? - Marek W Kozak, Pawel Opala and Pawel Samecki 16. Eu Cohesion Policy and the Peripheries of the New Member States - Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse Conclusions