Christian Schweiger is Visiting Professor and Chair for Comparative European Governance Systems at Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany.

Anna Visvizi is Head of Research at the Institute of East-Central Europe (IESW) and Assistant Professor at Deree College - The American College of Greece.

Since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, the EU has been in almost permanent crisis mode. It is witnessing new dimensions of internal differentiation among its member states, and the migration crisis has shown that the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEs) in particular are slowly but certainly transforming themselves from predominantly passive policy-takers towards adopting a more active role in the process of shaping the EU's governance agenda.

This edited volume offers the first comprehensive and critical insight into how the CEEs position themselves in the EU's changing internal and external environment, their stance towards the European integration process under current crisis conditions, and what political and economic strategies they prioritize.

1. Introduction: The EU under crisis conditions: Central and Eastern European perspectives, Christian Schweiger & Anna Visvizi, Part I - Central and Eastern Europe in the EU's Changing Internal and External Dimension, 2. Positioning the CEE region in the EU's core-periphery divide, Christian Schweiger, 3. A Rift in European Integration? Neglected Shadows of the Central and Eastern European Transformation, Beáta Farkas & András Máté-Tóth, 4. Perpetual crises, the return of geopolitics and the emergence of a new normalcy in Central Europe, Anna Visvizi, 5. Central European Relations in Turbulent Times, Beata Farkas, Part II - National Perspectives: Between Good citizenship and Backsliding, 6. European Union at the Crossroads: Which Route will Poland Take?, Maciej Duszczyk, 7. Hungary in the Visegrád Group: Introducing a Three-Level Game Approach, Krisztina Arató & Boglárka Koller, 8. Slovakia: A Farewell to a Passive Policy-Taker Role?, Zsolt Gál & Darina Malová, 9. The Politics of Internal and External Migration in the Enlarged EU: Bulgaria and Romania, from Policy-takers to Policy-makers?, Nicole Lindstrom & Mihnea Catuti, 10. The Baltic States in the EU: Committed Europhiles or Geopolitical Hostages?, Liutauras Gudzinskas & Tomas BekiSas, 11. The New Kid on the Block: Croatia's EU Membership in the Shadow of the Eurozone Crisis, Will Bartlett, Part III - The Visegrád Cooperation - Challenges for a Semi-Institutionalised Regional Group, 12. Internal and External Aspects of the Visegrád 4 Cooperation , Tomas Strazay, 13. The Dual Crisis and 'Regionalization' in the Visegrád States: The Identity Politics of East-Central Europe in the New World Order, Attila Ágh, 14. Cooperation or Integration? The New Defence Initiatives in the Visegrád group, Anna Molnár & Zoltán Szenes, 15. Conclusion: Perspectives and New Directions for Central and Eastern Europe in the EU, Christian Schweiger & Anna Visvizi