Central Europe is the region comprising the central part of Europe. It is said to occupy continuous territory that are otherwise conventionally Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe. The concept of Central Europe is based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. Central Europe is going through a phase of "strategic awakening", with initiatives such as the CEI, Centrope and the Visegrád Four. While the region's economy shows high disparities with regard to income, all Central European countries are listed by the Human Development Index as very highly developed.
The economy of Croatia is a developed high-income service based economy with the tertiary sector accounting for 60% of total gross domestic product (GDP). After the collapse of socialism, Croatia went through a process of transition to a market-based economy in the 1990s, but its economy suffered badly during the Croatian War of Independence. After the war the economy began to improve, before the financial crisis of 2007–08 the Croatian economy grew at 4-5% annually, incomes doubled, and economic and social opportunities dramatically improved.
The Economy of the Czech Republic is a developed export-oriented social market economy based in services, manufacturing and innovation, that maintains a high-income welfare state and the "continental" type of the European social model. The Czech Republic participates in the European Single Market as a member of the European Union, and is therefore a part of the economy of the European Union, but uses its own currency, the Czech koruna, instead of the euro. It is a member of the OECD. The Czech Republic ranks 15th in inequality-adjusted human development and 14th in World Bank Human Capital Index ahead of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom or France. It was described by The Guardian as "one of Europe’s most flourishing economies".
The politics of Slovenia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Slovenia is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Government of Slovenia. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembly and in minor part in the National Council. The judiciary of Slovenia is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of the European continent. There is no consensus on the precise area it covers, partly because the term has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic connotations. There are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region". A related United Nations paper adds that "every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct". One definition describes Eastern Europe as a cultural entity: the region lying in Europe with the main characteristics consisting of Greek, Byzantine, Eastern Orthodox, Russian, and some Ottoman culture influences. Another definition was created during the Cold War and used more or less synonymously with the term Eastern Bloc. A similar definition names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe. The majority of historians and social scientists view such definitions as outdated or relegated, but they are still sometimes used for statistical purposes.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially focused on the countries of the former Eastern Bloc it expanded to support development in more than 30 countries from central Europe to central Asia. Similar to other multilateral development banks, the EBRD has members from all over the world, with the biggest shareholder being the United States, but only lends regionally in its countries of operations. Headquartered in London, the EBRD is owned by 69 countries and two EU institutions, 69th being India recently in July 2018. Despite its public sector shareholders, it invests in private enterprises, together with commercial partners.
The economy of Albania went through a process of transition from a centralized economy to a market-based economy on the principles of the free market. Albania is an Upper-middle-income country and a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), World Trade Organization (WTO), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).
A developed country, industrialized country, more developed country, or more economically developed country (MEDC), is a sovereign state that has a developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations. Most commonly, the criteria for evaluating the degree of economic development are gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), the per capita income, level of industrialization, amount of widespread infrastructure and general standard of living. Which criteria are to be used and which countries can be classified as being developed are subjects of debate.
The Eastern Bloc was the group of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia and Southeast Asia under the hegemony of the Soviet Union (USSR) during the Cold War (1947–1991) in opposition to the capitalist Western Bloc. Generally, in Western Europe the term Eastern Bloc referred to the USSR and its East European satellite states in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon); in Asia, the socialist bloc comprised the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of Kampuchea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and the People's Republic of China. In the Americas, the communist bloc included the Caribbean Republic of Cuba, since 1961.
Europe is often divided into regions based on geographical, cultural or historical criteria. Many European structures currently exist, some are cultural, economic, or political - examples include the Council of Europe, the European Broadcasting Union with the Eurovision Song Contest, and the European Olympic Committees with the European Games. Several transcontinental countries which border mainland Europe, are often included as belonging to a "wider Europe" including, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Armenia, Greenland, as well as the Special member state territories and the European Union.
The economy of Europe comprises more than 740 million people in 50 different countries. Formation of the European Union (EU) and in 1999, the introduction of a unified currency – the euro brings participating European countries closer through the conveniece of a shared currency and has led to a stronger European cash flow. The difference in wealth across Europe can be seen roughly in former Cold War divide, with some countries breaching the divide. Whilst most European states have a GDP per capita higher than the world's average and are very highly developed, some European economies, despite their position over the world's average in the Human Development Index, are poorer.
A transition economy or transitional economy is an economy which is changing from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. Transition economies undergo a set of structural transformations intended to develop market-based institutions. These include economic liberalization, where prices are set by market forces rather than by a central planning organization. In addition to this trade barriers are removed, there is a push to privatize state-owned enterprises and resources, state and collectively run enterprises are restructured as businesses, and a financial sector is created to facilitate macroeconomic stabilization and the movement of private capital. The process has been applied in China, the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries of Europe and some Third world countries, and detailed work has been undertaken on its economic and social effects.
Shortage economy is a term coined by Hungarian economist János Kornai, who used this term to criticize the old centrally-planned economies of the communist states of the Eastern Bloc.
In economics, a shortage or excess demand is a situation in which the demand for a product or service exceeds its supply in a market. It is the opposite of an excess supply (surplus).
Central and Eastern Europe, abbreviated CEE, is a term encompassing the countries in Central Europe, the Baltics, Eastern Europe, and Southeastern Europe (Balkans), usually meaning former communist states from the Eastern Bloc in Europe. Scholarly literature often uses the abbreviations CEE or CEEC for this term. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development also uses the term "Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs)" for a group comprising some of these countries.
East-Central Europe is the region between German-, West Slavic- and Hungarian-speaking Europe and the Eastern Slavic lands of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Those lands are described as situated "between two": "between two worlds, between two stages, between two futures". In the geopolitical sense, East-Central Europe can be considered alongside Western and Eastern Europe, as one of the "Three Europes".
Fatmir Besimi is a Macedonian politician and economist of Albanian ethnicity. He served twice as Minister of Economy of Macedonia and as Minister of Defence. He is now Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia in charge of European Affairs. In 2010 he was selected as one of the top European Ministers in the group of Young Global Leaders by World Economic Forum.
The Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) is an extensive economic survey undertaken as a joint initiative of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Welfare in Poland is part of the social security system in Poland. It constitutes about 20% of government spending, and has been roughly stable in the past several decades. The Constitution of Poland states that all citizens have the right to social security in case of being unable to find a job, reaching the retirement age, or suffering from inability to work due to illness or disability. In detail, the law on welfare in Poland is covered by a 2003 law, updated several times, including in 2012.
