ABSTRACT
When European Union accession negotiations formerly opened in March 1998 with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Estonia, a symbolic milestone among countries of Central and Eastern Europe was reached. In the words of the Polish Foreign Minister, Bronislaw Geremek, anchoring these countries in the West means to “regain our natural place”. The political economy of transition in Central and Eastern Europe is thus an enterprise that is as daring in practice and historically unprecedented, as it is an analytical laboratory subject to constant changes and open-minded reflection. The crumbling of the Berlin Wall almost a decade ago has opened unique opportunities for genuine intellectual inquiry, but also given rise to numerous dilemmas. Meanwhile, the political economies of Central Europe proper - Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic - are gradually moving out of the realm of Eastern Europe as such.
