This edited volume analyses the channels through which EU membership contributed to the convergence process of member countries in the Baltics, Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. These channels include trade, investment, finance, labour, and laws and institutions. Global integration has certainly played an important role. A large part of FDI flows and financial integration in the world have been persistent features of globalization. Have these countries experienced more intensive integration through these channels because of EU membership, with its much tighter institutional and political anchorage, than their fundamentals and global trends would suggest? Contributions by lead researchers of the area address different aspects of this question. .

Michael A Landesmannis Senior Research Associate, former Scientific Director (1996-2016), of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), and Professor of economics at the Johannes Kepler University, Austria. He has a D.Phil. from Oxford University and taught and researched at Cambridge Universitys Department of Applied Economics and Jesus College, Cambridge. His research focuses on international economic integration, industrial structural change, labour markets and migration.

István P. Székely is Honorary Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, and Principal Adviser at the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission. Before joining the European Commission, he worked at the International Monetary Fund and in the National Bank of Hungary. He has a PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on financial market and macroeconomic policy issuesand on Central and Eastern European economies.

 1.Introduction.- 2.The economic impact of Single Market membership on the EU enlargement countries.- 3. FDI as force of convergence in the CESEE countries.- 4.The impact of EU cohesion funds on macroeconomic development in the Visegrad countries after the 2008-2009 financial crisis.- 5. The impact of the EU Cohesion policy spending: a model-based assessment.- 6. Models of banking sectors integration: The Experience of the Baltics and Central Eastern Europe.- 7.15 years from the Eastern Enlargement: Financial integration and economic convergence in Europe.- 8. Labour Markets, Demography, Migration and Skills.- 9. Corruption, Institutions and Convergence.- 10. Climate change and EU membership: The journey of Central and Eastern Europe towards a carbon-free world.- 11. The impact of the EU on national fiscal governance systems.- 12. Towards sustainable and adequate pension systems: old-age pension reforms after economic transition and EU accession in Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.