COOPERATION INITIATIVES IN EASTERN CENTRAL-EUROPE

Following the dissolution of the socialist community of states Its former member countries in eastern Central Europe are vehemently seeking integration into Western European structures, especially into the European Union (EU). Institutionalised regional cooperation, however, has not moved beyond isolated initiatives, such as in the Visegrid Group or the Central European Initiative (CEI). Christian Meier from the Federal Institute for East European and International Studies in Cologne analyses the reasons for this, in certain respects strange, behaviour by the states of eastern Central Europe and outlines perspectives for possible developments in the future.