ABSTRACT
In the eyes of many Western Europeans and US Americans, for decades Eastern Europe was a gray and homogenous area behind the Iron Curtain. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is more of a political and cultural concept than a geographical one. What all CEE countries have in common is the legacy of the former “communist system”, as described in the US, or “real socialism” – as these countries used to refer to themselves. Today, these countries are called transition countries because of the political, economic and social transitions from a single-party political system toward a pluralistic society, and from a centrally planned economy toward a market economy. Countries of the region are at different stages of their transition, as some of them are already EU and NATO members while others are still struggling with the establishment of democracy and a market economy. Slovenia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia became EU members in 2004, followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO in 1999, followed by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria in 2004. Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Ukraine are still at earlier stages of their transition.
