ABSTRACT
In the midst of all the changes that have swept across Europe at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, two dates stand out in the reconfiguration of a region which for forty-five years was defined as Eastern Europe: 1989 and 2004. The former marks the ending of Soviet domination of that part of Europe where Russia was hegemonic as a consequence of the outcomes of the Second World War, while 2004 best captures the reconfiguration that has been going on in Europe at large over the last decade with the expansion of the European Union (EU) from fifteen to twenty-five member governments. In this regard, 2004 calls attention to the need, more so now than ever before, to differentiate among the countries to the east of the original core of the EU.
