25 years after the fall of Iron Curtain: The state of integration of East and West in the European Union

Abstract

Europe changed tremendously in 25 years. One glimpse on political maps from 1989 and from today is enough to confirm this. When looking on these maps the reader is almost disoriented by the rapid changes of borders of countries and the European Union. Few people expected the fall and demolition of the Iron Curtain, the liberation, the reunification, the separation and the disappearance of European countries or the Soviet Union at such a speed. Even fewer people foresaw the peaceful integration of 11 former socialist countries into the European Union until 2013. During the last 25 years, Central and Eastern European countries have undergone unprecedented changes. In turn, the enlargement of the EU to these new countries also affected profoundly the EU itself. This Review aims to describe, document and explain the fundamental systemic change that took place in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 and its impacts on European integration. The authors construct a concise, objective and yet critical account of the major geo-historical, political, economic, social and cultural changes in the last 25 years in Central and Eastern Europe and their relationships with European integration. In doing so they use the results produced by several research projects funded by the EU under its 7th research framework programme as well as other scientific evidence and analysis produced on Central and Eastern European countries since the fall of the Iron Curtain.