Europe is on the turning point for a Metropolitan Age to come. Eurometropolises have come into being as a third power competing with the supranational authorities in Brussels and the international concerns tending to increase their influence through feedback effects of contacts with them that is no longer limited to the territorial scope of the individual countries. Only in federalistic systems they are part of the organizational structure of the states, as is the case in the German-speaking countries, otherwise they constitute an important group because of their functional capacities. They create their own networks of relationships, both with respect to competition and to cooperation, that are of a supranational nature and start to pursue largely independent politics. The metropolises assume the functions of enterprises - a fact having been realized in America some time ago -, and their potential market areas will surpass Europe's boundaries eventually. One of the features triggered by Europe's metropolitanization will consist in the formation of clusters of metropolises across borders, thus creating the basis of a new geodesign with large fairly homogenous spatial units, as 'megalopolises' and a 'sunbelt', terms coined and well-established in the United States and now used for the EU as well. Metropolises are the moving force and mainstay of the globalization of the economy and the destinations of foreign immigrants, but at the same time desorganization phenomena of the post-industrial society weigh heavy upon them. For this reason, research into metropolises in Europe first of all focused on the trends observed in the English-speaking countries, especially the model of the city as an enterprise, and in intrametropolitan research stress was on the thesis of a polarization with respect to a social stratification between the jet set and the lower classes. The differentiation of metropolises from west to east in Europe is the central theme of this paper. What developments are to be expected in the medium term future? Let me point out the most important phenomena: 1. The - demolished - ''Iron Curtain'' 's position will remain noticeable and make felt well into the next millennium in the physical and socio-economic structures of urban and rural areas where Western and Eastern meet. 2. While unification makes progress in the EU there will be individual national solutions in the post-communist countries as to settlement development, housing and labour markets. There older, persistent structures re-emerged in the cities once the homogenizing effects of the communist system had been removed. The change-over from plan to market and, thus, the privatization of real estate, housing and enterprises is managed according to different national strategies. 3. While the globalization of the economy is creating competition between large metropolises for the distribution of the growing quaternary sector, in the East only the primate cities will participate actively in the cooperation of, and competition between, the eurometropolises and become innovation centres for new international economic and technological developments. Only the primate cities will profit from the transfer politics of the international financial markets. Moreover, links to the high-speed railway networks and an extension international electronic data processing networks into the inner zone of the post-communist countries will, first of all, strengthen the top position these capitals hold in transport and communications. The later the post-communist countries will participate in European integration, the longer the special position of their primate cities will be prolonged. 4. Liberalization will cause a separation of social and economic politics in the EU und trigger intraurban und interurban segregation processes. Similiar processes will take place in the post-communist countries due to privatization processes and a drastic reduction and privatization of social services that have already started. 5. In Eastern Europe there will be no development analogous to that in the West, but many processes will be accelerated, such as a take-off of an international real estate market, an overspill of technological progress in transportation and communication infrastructures, an increase in the national unemployment rates and of social desorganisation (homelessness, drug abuse, criminality etc.) in the metropolises. 6. In the West, the Metropolitan System is increasingly dissociated from the national systems of ''central places'' that have entered a phase of destabilization. Small towns tend to be passed over by the new developments. In the countries that had a planned economy the lower rank ''central places'' have already been eliminated to a large extent. 7. The separation of locations for labour and leisure will continue in the West, furthering the growth of leisure and cultural cities, tourist areas and retirement settlements. The formation of second home regions surrounding large cities, especially the national metropolises, is much more marked in the formerly socialist countries than in most countries in Western Europe, and they will retain their importance. 8. In the large cities in Eastern Europe a new plutocratic upper class is coming into existence, while the formation of a Western type middle class society has no model in the past and is, therefore, improbable in the immediate future. Haves and have-nets will be even more polarized than in Western social welfare states. Traditional social patterns of cities will re-emerge and become more accentuated. It is to be expected that a ''one-third-society'' will develop, while two thirds of the society will have to cope with the risks of a market economy and might fall victim to a ''new poverty''.
