Peripheral Regionalism: The Consequences of Integrating Central and Eastern Europe in the European Automobile Space

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a breathtaking transformation took place in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) automobile space. Despite the formation of its own regional free trade area (CEFTA), the importance of the prospective integration of these countries inside the European Community/Union can hardly be overestimated. It made industrial development in those countries in general, and in the car industry in particular, subject to a process of ‘peripheral regionalism’. CEE countries swapped their previous dependence on a division of labour within the Warsaw Pact economy under the aegis of the former Soviet Union, for a position in the production networks of western producers under the aegis of the European Union. As a result, they gained considerable political autonomy, but partly lost (again) economic autonomy.