The prospects of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries acceding to the European Union (EU) raises several economic and social questions. A basic one of them is whether the framework of regional policies in the EU is adequate to meet the regional-policy challenges in the CEE countries. Even if this question cannot be decided at present, the EU structural-policy framework certainly provides better chances of doing so than the CEE countries would have otherwise: more adequate institutional models and more abundant (if still insufficient) funding.

The financial resources for implementing regional policies in the CEE countries are very limited. Another important feature is the general centralization of the budgetary allocations. The proportion of sub-national disposal over financial resources did not increase appreciably in the first 7-8 years of the transition. Indeed,it showed a sharp decline in some countries. These factors have also contributed to the general increase in regional disparities described in this study...