ABSTRACT
The situation in the late 1980s in the CEECs and at the international level was novel and, for most of the cases, unforeseen just a few years earlier. It raised hopes within Central European countries and at international level. However, it also created serious problems outside the area directly concerned, mainly in Western Europe, not only for the geographical closeness and the uncertain political effects of the reunification of the continent. German unification apart, perhaps the most important issue for Western European governments was the evident goal of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland to enter the European Union, a goal which the three countries put at the top of their transformation agendas.
