Central and Eastern European Economies

CHAPTER 1

The European Context for Integration and Accession

Overview

Nearly seven decades ago, six countries in Western Europe (Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) decided to take economic cooperation to the next level. The vision of the European Union (EU) founding states, epitomized by the Schuman Declaration in 1950, was to tie their economies—including the re-emerging West German economy—so closely together that war would become impossible.

In 1973, Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom joined what was then referred to as the “European Community.” The 1970s were also a decade of deep social and political transformations in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, where military regimes and dictatorships were overthrown. ...