This book presents a contemporary broad assessment of the main dilemmas of regional development and regional policy in Central and Eastern Europe considering the influence of internal and external pressures on the regionalization process in this area.

Introduction Sara Parolari PART ONE - Framework Chapter I. Central and Eastern Europe regional reforms: from dismantling a Soviet model to Europeanizing a national one Anatoliy Kruglashov 1. Introduction 2. Soviet model of regional governance: ideology, practice, institutional design and legacy in Central and Eastern Europe 3. Post-revolutionary period: debates and allowances of central governments to change regional policy and system of self-government 4. Impact of European integration on regional reforms and development in Central and Eastern Europe 5. Concluding remarks about Central and Eastern Europe countries’ regional policy upon accession Chapter II. EU regional policy and the process of institution-building in Central and Eastern European Countries Ekaterina Domorenok 1. Introduction 2. EU strategy for institution and capacity building: what is it about? 3. EU Structural Funds: the myth of multi-level governance? 4. Pre- and post-accession institutional pressures 5. The Structural Funds implementation in Central and Eastern European Countries: between challenges and changes 6. Conclusion Chapter III. Decentralization and local development: antecedents, challenges and current organizational forms Gert Guri and Bruno Dallago 1. Introduction 2. Looking back at the institutional and economic transition processes and the (re-) naissance of decentralization 3. Main challenges to decentralization 4. Framing local development 5. Conclusions and Future Perspectives Chapter IV. The English prototype. Non-political and non-administrative decentralization as a model for Central and Eastern European Countries? Sara Parolari 1. Introduction 2. The asymmetric nature of the British constitutional settlement and the consequences for England 3. The regionalization process in England: the role of Regional Development Agencies 4. Concluding remarks PART TWO – Case studies Chapter V. Decentralization and regional development in Romania. An unfinished reform in search of a “European” model Marius Suciu 1. Reflections on the sense and difficulties of decentralization in ex-communist countries of East Central Europe 2. Decentralization and regionalization in Romania. The challenges and ambiguities of a new model of regional governance 3. Conclusions Chapter VI. The Recentralization of Economic Development in Hungary Zoltán Pogátsa 1. Introduction 2. Decentralization after transition 3. Recentralization after 2010 Chapter VII. Securing growth and cohesion in Europeanized conditions. The role of regional development bodies in Poland Krzysztof Szczerski 1. Position of the regions in Poland 2. The role of public administration in regional development 3. Conclusion Chapter VIII. Regionalization and Regional Development in Serbia Chiara Guglielmetti and Sonja Avlijaš 1. Introduction 2. Legacy of sub-national institutions developed during the socialist Yugoslavia (1945-1991) and Milošević’s era (1989-2000) 3. Macroeconomic and legislative framework for regional development 4. Regional development during Serbia’s Transition (2001- ) 5. Case study of Eastern Serbia 6. Concluding remarks Concluding remarks. New regionalism in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Traditional models and beyond Francesco Palermo 1. Introduction. The end of regionalization or just the wrong approach? 2. Is regionalization desperate, necessary or imperative? 3. The dilemma of political regionalization in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European Countries 4. The way forward: asymmetry and institutional innovation