Transforming regional position of Central-Eastern Europe in the economic space of the European Union with special reference to Hungary

In post socialist countries that now form the eastern member states of the European Union there was a general vision of the society from the early nineties to catch up to the developed West. The dream of reaching the level of western European economic development and living standards was the main driver for economic transition and EU integration. In spite of modest convergence, however, the difference between the West and the East has remained dominant until today, ten years after the EU accession, while the core–periphery duality is also an important economic-geographic dimension in the European single market. The changing relative position of these regions in economic terms and the interrelation between the East and West of the EU is in the focus of this paper. It addresses some specifics of regional economic development of this area and particularly of Hungary at both macro-regional and regional levels paying attention to the economic crisis which started in 2007. In most of the eastern bloc, economic transition and EU integration were associated with several challenges and followed by imbalanced regional development as a result of the dominant role of the foreign direct investments in regional development, which led to the territorial concentration and increase of regional inequalities among regions within these countries.