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General features and features of the economy of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Natural and climatic conditions of Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe as a historical and geographical region includes: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, countries formed as a result of the collapse of the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia), Albania, Latvia, Lithuania , Estonia. But the name "Eastern Europe" has stuck with the countries of this region and is recognized throughout the world.

Natural resources of Eastern Europe

The countries of Eastern Europe are a single natural-territorial array stretching from the Baltic to the Black and Adriatic Seas. The region and its adjoining countries are based on the ancient Precambrian platform, covered by a cover of sedimentary rocks, as well as an area of alpine folding.

An important feature of all the countries of the region is their transit position between the countries of Western Europe and the CIS.

From the reserves of natural resources stand out: coal (Poland, Czech Republic), oil and natural gas (Romania), iron ore (countries of the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Slovakia), bauxite (Hungary), chromite (Albania).

In general, it must be said that the region is experiencing a shortage of resources, and in addition, it is a vivid example of an "incomplete" set of minerals. So, in Poland there are large reserves of coal, copper ores, sulfur, but almost no oil, gas, iron ore. In Bulgaria, on the contrary, there is no coal, although there are significant reserves of lignite, copper ores, and polymetals.

Population of Eastern Europe

The population of the region is about 130 million people, but the demographic situation, which is not easy in all of Europe, is the most alarming in Eastern Europe. Despite the active demographic policy pursued for several decades, the natural population growth is very small (less than 2%) and continues to decrease. In Bulgaria and Hungary, there is even a natural decline in population. In some countries, the natural increase is higher than the average for the region (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia), and it is the largest in Albania - 20%.

The population of Eastern Europe is characterized by a complex ethnic composition, but one can note the predominance Slavic peoples. Of the other peoples, the Romanians, Albanians, Hungarians, and Lithuanians are the most numerous. Poland, Hungary, Albania are distinguished by the most homogeneous national composition. Lithuania. Eastern Europe has always been an arena of national and ethnic conflicts. After the collapse of the socialist system, the situation became more complicated, especially on the territory of the most multinational country in the region - Yugoslavia, where the conflict escalated into an interethnic war.

Economy of Eastern Europe

The countries of Eastern Europe today are not characterized by a pronounced socio-economic unity. But in general, we can say that in the 2nd half of the XX century. Great changes have taken place in the economies of Eastern Europe. Firstly, industries developed at a faster pace - by the 1980s Eastern Europe had become one of the most industrial regions in the world, and secondly, previously very backward regions also began to develop industrially.

Metallurgy in Eastern Europe

In the post-war period, the industry actively grew and developed in all countries of the region, and non-ferrous metallurgy relies mainly on its own raw materials, while ferrous metallurgy relies on imported ones.

Mechanical engineering of Eastern Europe

The industry is also represented in all countries, but is most developed in the Czech Republic (primarily machine tool building, production of household appliances and computer technology); Poland and Romania are distinguished by the production of metal-intensive machines and structures, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia - by the electrical industry; in addition, shipbuilding is developed in Poland and Estonia.

Chemical industry in Eastern Europe

The region's chemical industry lags far behind Western Europe due to the lack of raw materials for the most advanced branches of chemistry - oil. But still, the pharmaceutical industry of Poland and Hungary, the glass industry of the Czech Republic can be noted.

Agriculture in Eastern Europe

The structure of the economy of the region is heterogeneous: in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and the Baltic countries, the share of animal husbandry exceeds the share of crop production, in the rest - the ratio is still the opposite.

Due to the diversity of soil and climatic conditions, several zones of crop production can be distinguished: wheat is grown everywhere, but in the north (Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) rye and potatoes play an important role, vegetable growing and horticulture are cultivated in the central part of Eastern Europe, and the “southern” countries specialize in subtropical crops.

Vegetables, fruits, grapes are cultivated in Eastern Europe almost everywhere, but there are areas where they primarily determine the specialization Agriculture. These countries and regions also have their own specialization in the range of products.

Europe is a region rich in a wide variety of natural resources. They are distributed unevenly across its territory. Each country has its own reserves, on which its economy is partially built.

General information

Despite the diversity of natural resources Foreign Europe, they are significantly depleted. This is due to several factors:

this region is the most densely populated on the planet, which leads to a massive consumption of resources;
Europe started using them earlier than other regions;
the territory of Europe is relatively small and the replenishment of resources is slow.

The general assessment of the security of Foreign Europe includes the amount of minerals, forestry, water and energy resources. Each region has its own resources.

Minerals

The characteristics of the mineral resources of the European territory are ambiguous. On the one hand, they are quite diverse; almost all types of minerals are represented here. On the other hand, their number is insignificant and annually decreases, not having time to recover.

Below are the mineral natural resources of Foreign Europe in the table.

Water

Water resources are one of the most significant in the economy of any country. Water is used in all industries, in agriculture, in people's lives.

Water resources are determined by the total amount of fresh water that is available in the territory of the region. Fresh water is understood as rivers and lakes, reservoirs. Foreign Europe is rich in both rivers and lakes, but they are relatively small. European rivers are located on the plains and in the mountains. Mountain reservoirs provide the region's hydropower resources.

The total volume of European lakes is 857 cubic meters. km. Most of the lakes are located in the northern part of Europe - Finland, Norway. In the mountainous regions there are also rounded lakes, formed as a result of the descent of glaciers.

There are about 2.5 thousand reservoirs in Europe. Most of them are in the southern part of the region.

There are problems with the provision of fresh water in the Mediterranean area. In hot summers, drought is often observed here.

Rice. 2. River network of Europe

Forest

The forest resources of Europe are quite large. About 33% of the territory is covered with various forests. To date, there has been an increase in their number. Mostly coniferous trees are common in Europe.

The forest is the largest natural resource potential of Foreign Europe. The woodworking industry provides 3.7 million jobs and contributes 9% to the region's economy.

The largest area of forest plantations falls on Northern Europe - Finland and Norway. Least of all forests are located on the island states.

Rice. 3. Map of forest resources in Europe

Earth

Land resources are the basis for the education of others, for human activity. Land is of the greatest importance in the economy. Agriculture is the main type of industry for the population of Foreign Europe. Almost 50% of the territory has been allocated for these needs. The most favorable soil for agriculture is presented in the southern regions. Animal husbandry is carried out in the mountains. In the northern countries, agro-climatic conditions are not very favorable for agriculture.

For the construction of housing and other buildings given only 5% of European land.

Soil resources are actively used for the construction of communications, agriculture. This adversely affects the flora and fauna.

Recreational resources

The natural conditions of Foreign Europe determine that it is the main center of tourism in the world. 2/3 of all tourists come here every year. They are mainly attracted by the sights of various European countries. Tourism is one of the main sectors of the economy.

The main recreational areas of Europe are mountains and sea coasts. Most Favorable natural areas are in the Mediterranean. Cruise trips are actively practiced in local seas. In the mountains, people go in for skiing and mountain climbing.

In foreign Europe, the most visited countries are France and Italy.

What have we learned?

Due to the active use of natural resources in Europe, their gradual depletion is taking place. To date, this region is the richest in mineral deposits and forests. Tourism is another important part of the economy. The problem of European countries is the lack of fresh water.

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Section two

REGIONS AND COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

Topic 10. EUROPE

2. CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova) have much in common. Most of all they are united by the post-communist past, when this group of countries belonged to the so-called eastern group of socialist countries. After the collapse of the USSR, such a politicized division lost its former meaning, and all these countries embarked on the path of market transformations.

Geographical position. The area of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe is 1379 thousand km 2, which is 13% of the area of Europe. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary (Slovakia is yet to be included in this subgroup of countries) border in the west with the countries of the macro-region Western Europe, in the southwest and in the south - with the countries of Southern Europe, in the north they are washed by the Baltic Sea, which delimits these countries from their immediate neighborhood With Northern Europe, in the northeast of Poland, as in the previous case, is a tangent even to the countries of Eastern Europe - Russian Federation, in particular the lands of the Kaliningrad region. The countries of the Dnieper-Black Sea subregion - Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova - complete the formation of a group of countries of Central and Eastern Europe with their eastern location.

Natural conditions and resources. Most Central and Eastern European countries do not have significant natural resource potential. The only exception is Ukraine, Poland, partially the Czech Republic. Among natural resources energy resources are of great value. The countries of the macro-region are distinguished by significant reserves of hard (energy and coking coal), in particular, Ukraine (Donetsk basin), Poland (Upper-Lezky, Lublin basins) and the Czech Republic (Ostravsko-Karvinsky) basin, as well as brown coal. Among other energy resources, the hydropower potential of Slovakia (Slovak Carpathians) should be mentioned. Uranium ores are mined in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Ukraine is rich in iron ore (Kremenchug, Krivoy Rog). For copper and lead-zinc ores - Poland, for copper and bauxite - Hungary. Natural sulfur and rock salt are found in Poland and Ukraine. The Czech Republic is rich in high-quality sands used in the glass industry. There are also kaolins, graphites, and in Slovakia - magnesite.

The climate of the region is temperate continental (the amount of heat increases from north to south, and moisture - from south to north) and is favorable for growing the main crops of the temperate zone, where the countries of Central and Eastern Europe belong. The arid lowland regions of Hungary and the southern territories of Ukraine and Moldova are considered an exception.

The soil cover has some features - podzolic soils in the north of the macroregion are gradually changing in the south and southeast directions to gray forest and fertile chernozems, where high yields of grain crops (wheat, corn, barley), as well as vegetables and fruits are grown.

population. In terms of population (130 million people), the macro-region ranks third on the continent after Western and Southern Europe. The average population density of Central and Eastern Europe is almost 94 people/km2, which is significantly higher than in Europe as a whole (64 people/km2). The most densely populated are the Czech Republic and Poland, respectively, 131 and 124 people / km 2, and relatively less often - Belarus (50 people / km 2) and Ukraine (84 people / km 2). Within the macro-region there are urbanized areas where the population density is significantly higher than the national average: Silesia in Poland, West, Center and Ostrovshchina in the Czech Republic, Donbass in Ukraine.

As for natural population growth, it is negative for most countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with the exception of Poland, Slovakia and Moldova. In 1998, in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe as a whole, the birth rate was 10 people, and the death rate was 13 people per thousand inhabitants. Life expectancy, which is a generalizing indicator of the living standards of the population, an extrapolation for the near future, shows that it will be 65 years for men and 75 for women. Life expectancy here is higher than in the world, but below the average in Europe, where they are 73 years for men and 79 years for women.

Central-Eastern Europe is not distinguished by a high level of urbanization (65%). This indicator is highest in Belarus (73%) and Ukraine (72%), the lowest - in Moldova - 54%. Among largest cities macro-region - Kiev - 2.7 million inhabitants, Budapest - 1.91, Minsk - 1.67, Warsaw - 1.65, Prague - 1.22 and a number of other non-capital, but important economic and administrative and cultural centers - Kharkiv , Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Lvov, Lodz, Krakow, etc.

A common problem for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe is the problem of employment of the able-bodied population. According to official data (1998-1999), most of the unemployed are in seemingly prosperous countries: Poland (13%), Hungary (9.6%), the Czech Republic (9.4%), and Slovakia (17.3%). However, it should be remembered that in the countries of the Dnieper-Black Sea subregion, where, according to statistics, unemployment ranges from 2% in Belarus and Moldova to 5% in Ukraine, hidden unemployment prevails, when people do not actually work, but are registered at work. This state of affairs encourages residents of the Dnieper-Black Sea subregion to go to work in countries with a high level of development, which does not always have a positive effect on solving social problems.

Features of the development of the region in the second half of the XX century. primarily associated with the political division of Europe after World War II. In the conditions of confrontation between East and West, the military-industrial complex developed rapidly. The rapid development of heavy industry alsoslowed down other industries, in particular those that were associated with the production of industrial consumer goods, food products, services, etc. The monopoly of state-cooperative property held back labor productivity, the introduction of scientific and technological progress into production, did not stimulate the protection environment. In addition, priority financial support for the industries of the so-called. the defense complex, as well as the costs of the functioning of the then Warsaw Pact Organization (created in 1955 as part of the USSR, Albania (until 1962), Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia) diverted attention and funds from the urgent problems of life peoples. Even the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, which existed since 1949 (albania included - until 1962, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia, East Germany, Poland, Romania, USSR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia), was unable to coordinate the international integration of labor in in order to improve the standard of living of the people.

The peoples of Central and Eastern Europe often opposed the inhumane communist regimes. This is evidenced by the events of 1956 in Hungary and Poland, 1968 - in Czechoslovakia, 1970 and 1980-1982 - in Poland. Most of these speeches were drowned in blood by the troops of the Warsaw Pact. The Spring of Nations, initiated by perestroika in the USSR, led to the collapse of the totalitarian administrative-command system, the democratization of social relations, the establishment of a multi-party system, denationalization and privatization of enterprises, liberalization and gradual rapprochement with the countries of Western Europe. Most countries Central Europe, freed from the influence of the USSR, expressed a desire to join the European Union, in the military-political organizations of Western countries. Thus, in 1999 Poland and the Czech Republic were admitted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have made significant progress in restructuring their economic systems. This is evidenced, for example, by the production of GNP per person: in the Czech Republic - 5150 dollars, in Hungary - 4510, in Poland - 3910 and in Slovakia - 3700 dollars, which is 3.6 times more than in the countries of the Dnieper-Black Sea region. .

Approximately the same transformations took place in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. However, the lethargy and indecision of the leadership of the post-Soviet newly independent states did not contribute to the rapid transition from central management to market economy.

Territory. Natural conditions and resources.

The region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) covers 15 post-socialist countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic (The Czech Republic includes the territory of the historical regions of the Czech Republic, Moravia and a small part of Silesia), Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Federation Serbia and Montenegro (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania. The area of the region, representing a single territorial array, is over 1.3 million km2. with a population of 130 million people. (1998). Of its constituent countries, the group of larger European states includes only Poland and Romania; other countries are relatively small in size (a territory of 20 to 110 thousand square kilometers with a population of 2 to 10 million people).

This region of Europe has gone through a difficult path of political and socio-economic development in the context of the dramatic struggle for the major European powers for spheres of influence on the continent for the peoples inhabiting it. This struggle was waged with particular force in the 19th-20th centuries. between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, Turkey, as well as France and Great Britain. In the course of this struggle and the intensified national liberation movements of the local population, former states were formed and destroyed. After the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, Poland reappeared on the map of Europe, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia formed, and the territory of Romania more than doubled.

Subsequent changes to political map CEE were the result of the victory over Nazi Germany and Italy during the Second World War. Chief among them: the return to Poland of its western and northern lands with wide access to Baltic Sea, Yugoslavia - the Julian Krajina and the Istrian peninsula, inhabited mainly by Slovenes and Croats.

During the transition of the CEE countries from a centrally planned economy to a market one (late 80s - early 90s), political, socio-economic and national-ethnic contradictions sharply aggravated in them. As a result, Czechoslovakia broke up along ethnic lines into two states - the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, and Yugoslavia - into five states: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the republics of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The CEE countries are located between the countries of Western Europe and the republics that were (until 1992) part of the USSR. A number of common features of their political and socio-economic development at the stage of transition to a market economy are connected with this. They are in the process of deep structural economic restructuring, fundamental changes in the nature and direction of foreign economic relations.

The CEE states are striving to expand their participation in the pan-European economic integration, primarily in the field of transport, energy, ecology, use of recreational resources. The region has access to the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas, the navigable Danube flows through it for a long distance; the territory of the region can be widely used for the transit of goods and passengers between Western Europe, CIS countries and Asia. For example, with the completion in 1993 of the canal Bamberg (on the Main River) - Regensburg (on the Danube River), the possibility of through trans-European water transport between the North and Black Seas opens up (from Rotterdam at the mouth of the Rhine to Sulina at the mouth of the Danube, a waterway of 3400 km.) . This is an important link in the development of a unified European network of inland waterways. Another example of the expanding use of the geographical position of the CEE countries is the transit through pipelines of natural gas and oil from Russia and other Caspian states to the countries of Western and Southern Europe. In 1994, the CEE countries signed the European Energy Charter Treaty, which laid down the economic mechanisms for the global energy space of all of Europe.

When evaluating natural resources, features of settlement and regional differences in economic activity on the modern territory of the CEE countries, it is necessary to imagine the most important structural and morphological features of its relief. Region covers: part European plain in the north (the Baltic States, Poland), the Hercynian midlands and hilly uplands (Czech Republic), part of the Alpine-Carpathian Europe with folded mountains up to 2.5 - 3 thousand meters high and low accumulative plains - the Middle and Lower Danube (Slovenia, Hungary , Slovakia, Romania, northern Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria), the South European Dinaric and Rhodope-Macedonian massifs up to 2 - 2.5 thousand meters high with intermountain basins and foothill plains (most of Croatia and Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania and southern Bulgaria).

The features of the geological and tectonic structures determine the composition and nature geographical distribution mineral countries. Large (on a European scale) deposits are of the greatest economic importance: coal (the Upper Silesian basin in the south of Poland and the adjacent Ostrava-Karvina basin in the north-east of the Czech Republic), brown coal (Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic), oil and natural gas ( Romania, Albania), oil shale (Estonia), rock salt (Poland, Romania), phosphorites (Estonia), natural sulfur (Poland), lead-zinc ores (Poland, Serbia), bauxite (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary) , chromites and nickel (Albania); in a number of countries there are deposits of uranium ores of industrial importance.

In general, the CEE countries are insufficiently provided with primary energy resources. Up to 9/10 of the region's hard coal reserves (about 70 billion tons) are in Poland alone. More than 1/3 of the pan-European lignite reserves are located in CEE; they are more dispersed across the countries of the region, but still more than half lies in Serbia and Poland. No country (except Albania) has sufficient reserves of oil and natural gas. Even Romania, which is better off with them, is forced to partially cover its needs for them through imports. Of the total CEE hydro potential of 182 billion kWh, about half falls on the republics of the former Yugoslavia (primarily Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and more than 20% on Romania. The region is rich in healing mineral springs, some of which are effectively used (especially in the Czech Republic).

CEE countries vary greatly in size, composition and quality forest resources. In the south of the region, in the mountainous regions of the Balkan Peninsula, as well as in the Carpathians, increased forest cover is characteristic with a predominance of conifers and beech, while in predominantly flat and heavily plowed Poland and Hungary, the availability of forests is much less. In Poland and the Czech Republic, a significant part of productive forests is represented by artificial plantations, primarily pines.

However, from the main wealth of CEE - its soil and climatic resources. There are large areas of naturally fertile soils, mostly of the chernozem type. This is primarily the Lower and Middle Danubian plains, as well as the Upper Thracian lowland. Due to the extensiveness of agriculture before the Second World War, about 10 - 15 centners were collected here. from ha. Cereal crops. IN

In the 1980s, the yield reached 35-45 centners. per ha., but was still lower than the fees in some Western European countries with less humus-rich lands.

According to soil and climatic conditions and other natural resources, the CEE countries can be conditionally divided into two groups: northern (the Baltic countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia) and southern (other countries). These differences, consisting in higher temperatures during the growing season and more fertile soils in the southern group of countries, create an objective basis for the specialization and complementarity of both groups of countries in agricultural production. While most of the territory northern group countries is located in a zone of sufficient moisture, in the south - during the growing season, arid conditions often arise, causing the need for artificial irrigation (In the Lower Danube and Middle Danube lowlands, one of the most irrigated agricultural areas in Europe arose in the second half of the 20th century). At the same time, the climatic conditions of the southern group of countries, combined with healing mineral springs and wide access to warm seas create important prerequisites for organizing recreation for residents of not only these countries, but also the northern part of the region, as well as tourists from other, primarily European, states.

Population.

The dynamics of the CEE population is characterized by a number of features characteristic of the European continent as a whole: a decrease in the birth rate, an aging population and, accordingly, an increase in the death rate. At the same time, the CEE region, in contrast to Western Europe, is also characterized by a significant population decline due to a negative balance of migration. In the second half of the 1990s, the average population density of CEE (104 people per sq. km) was close to that in Western Europe. Country-by-country differences in population density range from 33 in Estonia to 131 people. At 1 km. sq. in the Czech Republic. Differences in population density within countries are more significant, due to both natural conditions and socio-economic factors. The process of urbanization had a great influence. For most CEE countries, in contrast to the developed countries of Western Europe, the stage of accelerated industrialization and, accordingly, increased concentration of production in cities occurred at a later time, mainly after the Second World War. Therefore, the rate of urbanization during this period was the highest. By the beginning of the 1990s, more than 2/3 of the population of the region was already concentrated in cities (up to 4/5 in Czechoslovakia). There are few large cities compared to Western Europe. Capital cities stand out sharply, among which are the largest two-million inhabitants Budapest and Bucharest, and some urban agglomerations (Upper Silesian).

The unfavorable demographic situation (for a number of years, the death rate has exceeded the birth rate) is especially characteristic of Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Croatia. The situation is somewhat better in Poland, Romania and Slovakia, where there was still natural population growth in the 1990s. It is still high in Albania. But within a number of countries there are large regional differences in natural increase, depending on national composition and religious characteristics of certain groups of the population. In some areas of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, where significant groups of the Muslim faith live, the natural increase is much higher. The consequence of this is a change between the population of different nationalities within each of these countries in favor of representatives of peoples who profess predominantly Islam.

For example, in the former Yugoslavia for the period between the 1961 and 1991 censuses. due to higher natural population growth, the number of Albanians increased from 0.9 to 2.2 million people and Muslim Slavs (primarily in Bosnia and Herzegovina) from 1 to 2.3 million people. Mainly for this reason and partly because of migration, there have been great changes in the structure of the national composition of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the share of Serbs from 1961 to 1991 decreased from 43 to 31%, and the share of Muslims increased from 26 to 44%)

After the Second World War, in contrast to Western Europe, the homogeneity of the national composition of the population of a number of CEE countries increased significantly. Before the war, in the countries of the region as a whole, national minorities exceeded a quarter of the total population, and, for example, by 1960 they accounted for only about 7%. At the same time, the following were distinguished: single-ethnic countries with a very small proportion of national minorities - Poland, Hungary, Albania; single-ethnic countries with significant groups of national minorities - Bulgaria (ethnic Turks, gypsies), Romania (Hungarians, Germans, gypsies); binational countries - Czechoslovakia, inhabited by Czechs and Slovaks, historically associated with a certain territory, moreover, there were significant minorities in Slovakia - Hungarians and Gypsies; finally, multinational countries - Yugoslavia. The latter was mainly (84% according to the 1991 census) inhabited by South Slavic peoples, but in some of its republics, primarily in Serbia, there were significant groups of national minorities (Albanians and Hungarians).

In the process of aggravation of the political and socio-economic situation in CEE in the late 1980s and early 1990s, interethnic contradictions intensified. This led to the collapse of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Now the Czech Republic and Slovenia have joined the first group of single-ethnic minorities. At the same time, interethnic problems (and in some cases acute conflicts) continue to complicate the development of Romania, Bulgaria and especially Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Intensive migrations are closely related to interethnic problems and economic factors. Mass internal migration of the population was especially great in the first decade after the war (in Poland and Czechoslovakia, associated with the movement of Germans to Germany from the Polish reunited lands and the border regions of the Czech Republic, as well as in Yugoslavia - from the mountainous regions destroyed by the war to the plains, etc.). There was also emigration; in search of work from Yugoslavia over 1 million people emigrated in the 60-80s (most to Germany and Austria) and a little less from Poland .; part of the ethnic Turks emigrated from Bulgaria to Turkey, from Romania - the majority of ethnic Germans (in Germany). In the early 1990s, internal and external migration of the population in the former Yugoslavia increased sharply as a result of the most acute ethnic conflicts; the bulk of them are refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Some of them sought to leave the zones of interethnic conflicts, while others were subjected to forced resettlement in order to achieve greater ethnic homogeneity of the population in certain areas (for example, the eviction of Serbs from Croatian Western Slavonia and Serbian Krajina or Croats from the north of Bosnia and from the east of Slavonia).

A particularly difficult situation was in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (AK Kosovo for short) in southern Serbia. There, by the time of the collapse of Yugoslavia (1991), the population consisted of 82% Albanians, 11% Serbs and Montenegrins, 3% Muslim Slavs, as well as Gypsies, etc. The predominance of the Albanian population in Kosovo is the result of several processes.

First, after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when the Serbian troops suffered a fatal defeat from the Turks advancing into the Balkans, the Serbian population in Kosovo declined. The subsequent uprisings of the Serbs and the wars between the Austrian and Turkish empires for the possession of the Balkans were accompanied by the devastation of Serbian lands and the mass resettlement of Serbs across the Danube (especially at the end of the 17th century). Albanians gradually began to descend from the mountains to the devastated lands of Metohija and Kosovo with a rare Slavic population, which by the 18th century. Most of them have already converted to Islam. As a result of the First Balkan War, the Turks were expelled from most of the Balkan Peninsula. It was then, in 1913, that an independent Albanian state was created and the existing borders with its neighbors Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece were established to this day.

During the years of World War II, almost 100,000 Serbs were expelled from Kosovo and Metohija in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. In their place, many Albanians were resettled from Albania, which was under the protectorate of fascist Italy. According to the 1948 Yugoslav census, 0.5 million Albanians already lived in Kosovo and Metohija (more than 2/3 of their population).

In the SFRY, as part of the Republic of Serbia, the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija was allocated. Under the country's new constitution of 1974, the region's population received even greater autonomy (its own government, parliament, judiciary, etc.). In the Kosovo AK, despite the presence of broad autonomy, Albanian separatism and nationalism began to grow. Between 1968 and 1988, under pressure from Albanian nationalists, about 220,000 Serbs and Montenegrins were forced to leave Kosovo.

Secondly, the Muslim Albanian population grew at a high rate as a result of a large natural increase, which was several times higher than that of the Serbs and Montenegrins. In the 60s of the 20th century, a population explosion occurred in the Kosovo AK. For 30 years (from 1961 to 1991), the Albanian population there increased by 2.5 times due to natural growth (from 0.6 to 1.6 million people). Such rapid growth led to the aggravation of vital socio-economic problems in the region. Unemployment rose sharply, and the problem of land became more and more acute. The population density increased rapidly. From 1961 to 1991 it increased from 88 to 188 people per 1 km. sq. The territory of Kosovo and Metohija is the area with the highest population density in Southeast Europe. Under such conditions, inter-ethnic relations in the region became aggravated, the speeches of the Albanians intensified, demanding the separation of the Kosovo AK into a separate republic. The government of the SFRY was forced to introduce internal troops into the Kosovo AK. In 1990, the assembly (parliament) of Serbia adopted a new constitution, according to which the AK of Kosovo loses the attributes of statehood, but retains the features of territorial autonomy. The Albanians are holding a referendum on the question of a "sovereign independent state of Kosovo", terrorist acts are intensifying, and armed detachments are being created.

In 1998, the Albanian separatists created the "Kosovo Liberation Army" and proceeded to open military operations against the Serbian troops, seeking the internationalization of the "Kosovo issue". They succeed, and after the failure of the peace talks in France, at which the Yugoslav side was ready to grant Kosovo the widest autonomy, in March 1999, the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO aircraft began.

A new act of the Balkan drama was played out, the Balkan crisis. NATO countries, instead of the declared purpose of the bombing - to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo - contributed to this catastrophe. In the month since the start (March 1999) of the NATO air operation against the FR of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was forced to leave (according to UN data) over 600,000 ethnic Albanians. But the tragedy is that the armed conflict in Kosovo did not contribute one step to resolving the "Kosovo question"; at the same time, he inflicted enormous damage on the population and national economy of the SR Yugoslavia.

Ultimately, the tragic events in the territory of the former Yugoslavia in last decade The 20th century is another stage in the struggle of the NATO countries for dominating influence in the Balkan Peninsula.

The main features of the economy.

Most of the CEE countries (excluding Czechoslovakia) embarked on the path of capitalist development later than the leading countries of Western Europe and, on the eve of World War II, were classified as economically less developed European states. Their economy was dominated by extensive agriculture. During the Second World War, the countries of the region (especially Poland and Yugoslavia) suffered heavy material and human losses. After the war, as a result of political and socio-economic transformations, they switched to a centrally planned type of economy, in contrast to the market economy of Western European countries. Over almost half a century of development (from 1945 to 1989-1991), a specific type of economy was formed in the CEE countries, characterized by excessive centralization of management and monopolization of the social and economic spheres of life.

The level of their economic development has risen significantly; at the same time, there was a significant convergence of the levels of the countries of the region. In the course of the unfolding industrialization, a new sectoral and territorial structure of the economy was formed with a predominance of industry, primarily its basic industries. A new production infrastructure was created, primarily in the field of energy and transport, the involvement of the economy in foreign economic relations increased (especially significantly in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Slovenia). However, the achieved level of development was still significantly lower than that of the leading countries of Western Europe. At the same time, in terms of some quantitative indicators, there was a significant convergence of individual CEE countries with the states of Western Europe (for example, in coal mining, electricity production, steel and basic non-ferrous metal smelting, production of mineral fertilizers, cement, fabrics, shoes, as well as sugar, grain, etc. . per capita). However, a large gap has formed in the quality of manufactured products, in the degree of introduction of modern technologies and more economical production. Manufactured products, although they were sold in the countries of the region and especially in the huge but less demanding market of the USSR, were for the most part uncompetitive in Western markets. The accumulated shortcomings of a structural and technological nature (the predominance of industries heavy with obsolete equipment, increased material and energy intensity, etc.) led to an economic crisis in the 1980s. The period of forced industrialization in the first post-war decades was replaced by stagnation and then a decline in production. The process of transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, with the replacement of the “transferable ruble” in foreign economic settlements with a convertible currency and at world prices, had the most severe consequences for the economies of most CEE countries. The integration economic ties between the CEE countries and the republics turned out to be largely destroyed. former USSR, on which their economic systems were basically closed. A radical restructuring on a new, market basis of the entire national economy of CEE was required. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the CEE countries have entered the G1 stage of establishing a more efficient economic structure, in which, in particular, the service sector is developing widely. The share of industry in GDP decreased from 45–60% in 1989 to 25–30% in 1998.

By the end of the 1990s, some of the more developed CEE countries - Poland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary - were able to get closer to overcoming the crisis. Others (mainly the Balkan countries) were still far from it. But even the first group of countries continued to lag far behind the EU countries in terms of economic development, and it will probably take at least two decades to close this gap. About significant differences in the level of socio-economic development between different groups countries of the CEE itself can be judged by the following data: 5 of them (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia), which have more than 2/5 of the territory and half of the population of the CEE region, account for almost 3/4 of GDP and foreign trade turnover, and also 9/10 of all foreign direct investment.

Industry.

In the 1950s and 1980s, a large industrial potential was created in the CEE countries, designed mainly to cover the needs of the region and close interaction with the national economy of the USSR, where a significant part of industrial production was sent. This direction of industrial development was reflected in the formation of an industry structure, which was distinguished by a number of features.

In the course of industrialization, fuel and energy and metallurgical bases were created, which served as the basis for the development of the machine-building industry. It is mechanical engineering in almost all countries of the region (excluding Albania) that has become the leading industry and the main supplier of export products. Almost re-created chemical industry, including organic synthesis. The rapid development of mechanical engineering, chemistry and electric power industry contributed to the fact that their share in the gross industrial output reached half. At the same time, the share of products of the light and food and flavor industries has significantly decreased.

Fuel and energy industry The region was created on the basis of the use of local resources (to a greater extent in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania) and imported energy sources (to the greatest extent in Hungary, Bulgaria). In the total fuel and energy balance, the share of local resources ranged from 1/4 (Bulgaria, Hungary) to 3/4 (Poland, Romania). In accordance with the structure of local resources, most countries were characterized by a coal orientation with extensive use of brown coals of low calorific value. This led to higher specific capital investments in the production of fuel and electricity and increased their cost.

CEE is one of the largest coal mining regions in the world. In the second half of the 1990s, it produced more than 150 million tons of hard coal per year (130-135 in Poland and up to 20-25 in the Czech Republic). The CEE countries are the world's first region for the extraction of brown coal (about 230-250 million tons per year). But if the main extraction of coal is concentrated in one basin (it is divided by the Polish-Czech border into two unequal parts - into the Upper Silesian and Ostrava-Karvinsky), then the extraction of brown coal is carried out in all countries, moreover, from many deposits. Most of it is mined in the Czech Republic and Poland (50–70 million tons each), Romania, S. R. Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria (30–40 million tons each). Brown coal (like a smaller part of hard coal) is consumed mainly in thermal power plants near the mining sites. Significant fuel and electric power complexes have been formed there - the main bases for the production of electricity. Among them, larger complexes are located in Poland (Upper Silesian, Belkhatuvsky, Kuyavsky, Bogatynsky), the Czech Republic (North Czech), Romania (Oltensky), Serbia (Belgrade and Kosovo), Bulgaria (East Maritsky). In Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Albania, the share of hydroelectric power stations in the production of electricity is high, and in Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia, filling stations. Some power plants also use natural gas (mostly imported from Russia, but in Romania - local). Electricity production in the region reached 370 billion kWh per year in the 1980s. Electricity consumption was significantly higher than production due to its systematic purchase in the former USSR (over 30 billion kWh per year), especially in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia.

CEE countries were connected to each otherlow-voltage transmission lines and formed, together with the power systems of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, a single power system. An oil refining industry has been created in CEE that is sufficient to meet the demand for petroleum products.max. It grew on the basis of large oil deliveries inmainly from Russia, delivered through the systemoil pipeline "Druzhba" (to Poland, Slovakia, Chekhiya, Hungary) and by sea from Novorossiysk (to Bolgaria). Hence the localization of larger refinerieson oil pipeline routes (Plock, Bratislava, Sas-halombatta) or in seaports (Burgas, Nevoda-ri, Gdansk). These refineries (with a capacity of 8-13 million tons)served as the basis for the development of the basic plants of the petrochemical industry of the respective countries. In the 90s, with a decrease inoil rates from Russia and the growth of imports from the stateOPEC member states, the CEE countries were forced to re-equip part of the refinery capacities, according tobuilt earlier based on Russian oil.

Before World War II metallurgist gia was represented mainly by ferrous metallurgy enterprises in the Czech and Polish lands, lead-zinc plants in the south of Poland and a copper smelter in Serbia (Bor). But in 1950-1980. new large ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy plants were built in the region. By the end of the 80s, annual steel production reached 55 million tons, copper - 750 thousand tons, aluminum - 800 thousand tons, lead and zinc - 350-400 thousand tons each. The main producers of iron and steel were Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania. In each of them, large plants were built either on the basis of domestic coking coal (Poland, Czechoslovakia), or mainly imported (Romania), but all on imported iron ore. Therefore, they were built in the corresponding coal basins (Upper Silesian, Ostrava-Karvinsky) or on the routes of importing iron-containing raw materials and coking coal from outside, in particular on the banks of the Danube (Galati and Calarasi in Romania, Dunaujvaros in Hungary and Smederevo in Serbia). By 1998, steel production had dropped to 35 million tons.

Non-ferrous metallurgy plants were created mainly on the local raw material base. This industry has received greater development in Poland (copper, zinc), the former Yugoslavia (copper, aluminum, lead and zinc), Bulgaria (lead, zinc, copper), Romania (aluminum). The copper-smelting industry of Poland (the achieved level is over 400,000 tons of copper) and the aluminum industry of a number of republics of the former Yugoslavia (300-350,000 tons) have good prospects; significant reserves of bauxite High Quality available in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro. On their basis, aluminum plants were built in the area of Zadar (Croatia), Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Podgorica (Montenegro) and Kidricevo (Slovenia). But the largest aluminum smelter in the region operates in Slatina (in southern Romania), operating on domestic and imported raw materials. Yugoslavia and Hungary were suppliers of bauxite and alumina to other countries (Poland, Slovakia, Romania, but most of all to Russia).

The scale and structure of metallurgy significantly affected the nature and specialization of mechanical engineering. In particular, in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, its metal-intensive industries are more represented, and in the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, industries that use a large amount of non-ferrous metals (cable production, electrical engineering, material handling equipment).

The main specialization of mechanical engineering in the CEE countries is the production of means of transport and agricultural machinery, machine tools and technological equipment, electrical products and devices. In each of the countries, specialization has developed, aimed at covering the basic needs of the region itself and the former USSR. Poland (especially fishing), Croatia, locomotives, passenger and freight cars - Latvia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, buses - Hungary, minibuses - Latvia, electric cars and motorcars - Bulgaria, excavators - Estonia, etc. d.

Specialization was also great in the defense industry. Even as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, its main "arsenal" was the Czech Republic (especially the famous Skoda factories in Pilsen). The placement of the newly created defense industry gravitated towards the "internal" regions of the countries, especially the foothills and intermountain basins of the Carpathians, the Dinaric Highlands and the Stara Planina.

In general, the location of mechanical engineering is characterized by a high concentration of enterprises within the center and north of the Czech lands, the Middle Danube valley (including Budapest) and its tributaries the Morava and Vaga. In Poland, this industry is dispersed in large cities in the middle part of the country (the main centers are Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw), as well as in the Upper Silesian agglomeration. Machine-building centers stand out in the zone Bucharest-Ploiesti-Brashov (Romania), as well as in the capital cities of Sofia, Belgrade and Zagreb.

From 1/3 to 1/2 of the country's engineering productsCEE sent for export. At the same time, exchanging these products mainly within the framework ofCMEA member countries, the countries of the region in a small grouppenis experienced the impact of the mainengine of scientific and technological progress in the world -competitive struggle. The low mutual demands, especially on the quality of products, led to the fact that in the transition to a marketeconomy and inclusion in the world economya significant part of the produced machines and equipmentdovaniya turned out to be uncompetitive. There was a big decline in production in the industry andAt the same time, imports of higher qualityequipment from Western Europe, USA and Japanresearch institutes. Characteristic fact; Czech Republic -one of the countries with developed mechanical engineering, in whichtoroy in the 80s machinery and equipment compositionaccounted for 55-57% of its exports and only about 1/3 of its imports, already in the early 90s began to buy muchmore machines and equipment than to sell them.A painful process of transformation takes placeof the entire machine-building complex of the countries of the regionit, during which hundreds of major enterprisesThe enterprises were on the verge of collapse and bankruptcy.Faster than other countries to new conditions became underadapt mechanical engineering Czech Republicfaces, Poland and Hungary.

During the post-war period in CEE was, in essence, re-created chemical industry . At the first stage, when mainly large enterprises basic chemistry (especially in the production of mineral fertilizers and chlorine-containing products), Poland and Romania, which had large reserves of the necessary raw materials, found themselves in a more favorable position. Later, with the development of the organic synthesis industry, its production began to be created in other CEE countries, but for the most part on the basis of oil and natural gas imported from Russia (and in Romania and their local resources) and coke chemistry (Poland, Czechoslovakia); increased specialization in the production of pharmaceutical products (especially Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria) and small-tonnage chemistry.

The most important territorial groups of enterprises in the chemical and oil refining industries are tied, firstly, to the main coal-mining basins (primarily the Upper Silesian and North Bohemian), where, in addition to coal chemistry, industries using oil and oil products supplied through pipelines were later “drawn”; secondly, to the centers for processing imported oil that arose at the intersection of main oil pipelines with large rivers (Plock in Poland, Bratislava in Slovakia, Saskha-lombatta in Hungary, Pancevo in Serbia), as well as in seaports (Burgas in Bulgaria, Rijeka region in Croatia, Koper in Slovenia, Navodari in Romania, Gdansk V Poland); thirdly, to the sourcesnatural gas or produced locally (Tran sylvania in the center of Romania), or received through gas pipelines from Russia (Potisie in eastern Hungary, in the middle reaches of the Vistula in eastern Poland).

Light industry satisfies the basic needs of the population in fabrics, clothing, footwear; a significant part of its production is exported. CEE countries occupy a prominent place in Europe in the production of cotton, wool and linen fabrics, leather shoes, as well as such specific products as costume jewelry, art glass and art ceramics (Czech Republic). The main areas of the textile industry have historically developed in the center of Poland (Lodz) and on both sides of the Sudetenland - in the south of Poland and in the north of the Czech Republic.

The region has a large shoe industry - in the 80s, over 500 million pairs of shoes were produced per year. It is more developed in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia. In particular, the Czech Republic is among the leading countries in the world in terms of the manufacture and export of footwear per capita. Such centers as Zlin (in the Czech Republic), Radom and Helmek (Poland), Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Borovo and Zagreb (Croatia) are widely known in the industry.

CEE has all the main branches of the food industry, but at the same time, each country specializes in the development of certain types of products in accordance with the nature of local agricultural raw materials and national customs in the consumption of certain food products. In the northern group of countries, the share of industries processing livestock products is much higher; among the products of plant origin, their share in the production of sugar and beer is high. Southern countries stand out for the production of vegetable oil, canned vegetables, grape wines, fermented tobacco and tobacco products. A significant part of these types of products of sub-sectors specialized in the north and south of the region is intended for export.

In the context of the transition to a market economy in the CEE countries, the main changes in industry are the reduction in the share of basic industries (coal and ferrous metallurgy), as well as mechanical engineering. Particularly significant are intra-industry changes in the direction of reducing production of increased energy and material consumption. A number of countries in the region receive loans from Western Europe for the purchase of high-tech equipment and the replacement of obsolete production facilities with new ones, the products of which are in demand on the world market. Industrial modernization in the 1990s was more successful in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. The most difficult situation in the industry of the republics of the former Yugoslavia (with the exception of Slovenia); they were embroiled in years of conflict, which greatly affected their economy.

Agriculture. The expansion of agricultural production is one of the important areas of promising specialization of the CEE countries. For this, the region has favorable soil and climatic conditions. During the post-war period, the gross agricultural output has increased significantly, and the yields of the main crops and the productivity of livestock have increased several times. But in terms of the general level of development, especially in terms of labor productivity, the agriculture of the CEE countries is still significantly inferior to that of Western Europe. In this regard, there are differences among individual CEE countries. So, for example, a high level of agriculture in the Czech Republic, Hungary and lower - in the countries of the Balkan Peninsula and in Poland. In general, the population of CEE is provided with basic agricultural products and a large part of it can be exported. In turn, the region, like Western Europe, needs to import tropical products and some types of agricultural raw materials (primarily cotton). In the process of transition to a market economy, agriculture in CEE is increasingly facing difficulties in marketing products in Western markets in the context of the crisis of overproduction and intense competition there. At the same time, close to CEE there is a vast market of Russia, to which, on new, mutually beneficial conditions, products that are scarce for Russia are supplied in large quantities, primarily vegetables, fruits, grapes and products of their processing.

The place of the CEE region in European agricultural production is determined mainly by the production of grain, potatoes, sugar beets, sunflowers, vegetables, fruits, and meat and dairy products. In 1996-1998 CEE countries produced on average about 95 million tons of grain per year (almost 40% more than Russia, but half as much as the countries of Western Europe). Of this amount, the main grain crops - wheat, corn and barley - accounted for 33, 28 and 13 million tons, respectively. But there are large country-by-country differences in the composition of the prevailing grain crops and the volume of their production. The largest grain producer - Poland (comparable to the UK in terms of volume, but inferior to Ukraine) stands out for the production of wheat and rye. In the southern group of countries, along with wheat, a lot of corn is grown (primarily in Romania, Hungary and Serbia). It is this group of countries that stands out, together with Denmark and France, with the largest per capita grain production in Europe. In the diet of the inhabitants of the southern group of countries, beans stand out, while in the northern group, especially in Poland, potatoes. Poland alone grew almost as many potatoes as Germany, France and Great Britain put together. In the Middle and Lower Danubian plains within Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, a lot of sunflower is grown; more sunflower seeds are produced on their lands than in all of Western Europe (only Ukraine is the largest producer in Europe). In the northern group of countries (especially in Poland), another oilseed crop is common - rapeseed. In the Baltic States and Poland, flax has long been cultivated. Sugar beet is also grown there, although this crop has become widespread in all CEE countries. This region is a major producer of vegetables, fruits and grapes, and in southern countries especially many are grown tomatoes and peppers, plums, peaches and grapes, a significant part of which is intended for export, including to the northern part of the region.

During the post-war period, a significant increase in crop production and a change in its structure in favor of fodder crops contributed to the development of animal husbandry and an increase in the share of its products in total agricultural production. In Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the breeding of cattle and pigs is of greater importance. They have a higher slaughter weight of livestock and average milk yields. In the southern group of countries, the overall level of animal husbandry is lower; grazing and sheep breeding are common.

Transport.

During the post-war period, the volume of transport work in the region grew faster than national income. This was primarily due to the high rate of industrialization, the expansion of mining and other basic branches of heavy industry, and the increase in agricultural output; with the creation of industry in previously economically underdeveloped areas, which were drawn into the sphere of the territorial division of labor; with the transition of the industry to large-scale mass production and with the development of intra-industry specialization and cooperative production, accompanied in many cases by a spatial division of the technological cycle; with the dynamic expansion of foreign trade exchanges within the region, and especially with the former USSR, from where large flows of fuel and raw materials were sent. All this led to a multiple increase in the mass of transported goods, for which the road network created in the previous period was mainly used; this was especially true of its backbone - the railway network (the density of the railway network in CEE as a whole is much less than in Western Europe). In the 80s the density freight traffic By railways in the region was, however, much more than in the countries of Western Europe. For this, most of the main lines were modernized: they were transferred to electric and diesel traction. It was they who took over the main flows of goods. At the same time, there are significant differences between countries. Along with the closure of a number of minor roads, new lines were built. The main ones are: Upper Silesia - Warsaw, Belgrade - Bar (which connected Serbia with Montenegro through the mountainous regions and provided Serbia with access to the sea), as well as broad gauge lines (as in the CIS countries): Vladimir-Volynsky - Dombrova-Gurnicha and Uzhgorod-Koshitse (to supply Ukraine and Russia with iron ore raw materials for the metallurgy of Poland and Czechoslovakia.) The creation of the Ilyichevsk-Varna sea ferry railway system was of great importance for speeding up and cheapening transportation between Bulgaria and the USSR.

The road network has been significantly expanded and improved. First-class highways appeared. Separate sections of the north-south meridional expressway are being built from the shores of the Baltic to the Aegean Sea and the Bosphorus (Gdansk-Warsaw-Budapest-Belgrade-Sofia-Istanbul with a branch to Nis-Thessaloniki). The importance of the latitudinal motorway Moscow-Minsk-Warsaw-Berlin is growing. But in general, the CEE region continues to lag far behind Western Europe in terms of the level of development of the road network and road transport.

The CEE region has become an important link in the developing European pipeline transport system. It ended up in the way of the main flows of oil and natural gas from Russia to the EU countries. The creation of a network of main oil and gas pipelines made it possible to reduce the load on railway transport, the capacity of which was almost exhausted. The basis of the CEE pipeline network is made up of oil and gas pipelines that transfer fuel and raw materials from Russia. A lot of natural gas is also transported through these pipelines to other European countries. Thus, through the territory of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, gas is transmitted to the countries of Western Europe, and through Romania and Bulgaria - to Greece and Turkey.

An urgent task of European cooperation in the field of transport is the development of an integrated system of inland waterways of international importance. An important link in this system is the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway.

Complexes of hydraulic structures on thispaths are mostly complete. However, to ensureof regular transportation of bulk cargo beforeit is worth "embroidering" a few "bottlenecks". One of them is the section of the Danube between Slovakia and Hungary.her, where in the period of shallow water (more often in the second halfdue to summer) the passage of loaded ships is difficult.In order to improve navigation conditions onIn this section, it was decided to build a joint hydro complex Gabchikovo - Nagymaros. Shortly before the completion of this major structureHungary in 1989 refused to continue it(for environmental and political reasons).Unfortunately, the political situation putsthere are many slingshots on the way of pan-European integrationtions. Another example: stopping regularnavigation on the Danube in 1994 as a consequence of the ecoeconomic blockade of the Federal Republic of Southglory from the UN. The most difficult partfor navigation on the Danube, until the beginning of the 70s, the area of \u200b\u200bthe Cataract Gorge between the spurs of the SouthernCarpathians from the north (Romania) and spurs of the East Serbian Mountains from the south (Serbia); joint wuxitwo countries were built therehydro complex - "Iron GatesI” and “IrongateII» with Europe's largest gatewaysand near-dam hydroelectric power stations (capacityHPP "Iron Gate"I» more than 2 million kW).

Maritime transport of the CEE countries plays an important role in foreign trade transportation, but in general its importance in the transport system of most countries of the region is much less than that of the countries of Western Europe. Naturally, in the economy of coastal countries: Poland (the port complexes of Gdynia-Gdansk and Szczecin-Swinoujscie), Romania (the Constanta-Adzhidzha complex), Bulgaria (the ports of Varna and Burgas) and Croatia (the main port of Rijeka), ports play an important role.

Foreign economic relations CEE countries in the 60-80s were of decisive importance in the formation of the Eastern European integration region, which also included the former USSR. More than 3/5 of the foreign trade turnover of the CEE countries accounted for mutual deliveries within the countries - members of the former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. The reorientation of the political and economic development of the CEE countries led in the 1990s to changes in their traditional economic ties. Former ties were largely destroyed, and new ones in the conditions big recession production in the first half of the 90s was adjusted with difficulty. Nevertheless, the geographical orientation of the economic relations of the CEE countries has changed towards, first of all, Western Europe. Transformations in the CEE contribute to the penetration of Western European products and capital into the capacious Eastern European market. At the same time, the traditional products of the CEE countries with great difficulty make their way to the West in the face of fierce competition. In the late 1990s, these countries provided only 4% of EU imports. The turn of the CEE towards the West did not bring her the expected quick results in the reconstruction and development of the national economy. It became obvious that the prospective development of the economic complexes of the CEE countries should be based on the objective necessity of combining broad ties with both the West and the East. Efforts are being made to partially restore, on a mutually beneficial basis, ties with Russia, Ukraine and other republics of the former USSR. The main part - 4/5 of the external trade turnover of the CEE countries is realized within Europe. In the late 1990s, about 70% foreign trade CEE was carried out with the EU countries (the main among them are Germany, Italy, Austria). Mutual trade within the region is also being activated.

Service sector domestic and foreigntourism has become an industry that provides countries in the region with significant income. Tourism is involved in the formation of the territorial structure onnative economy in a number of areas of the CBE countries. Thisespecially the Adriatic coast of Croatia,Montenegro and Albania; Black Sea coastBulgaria and Romania; Lake Balaton in Hungary.Tourism contributes relatively little to recoverydeveloped mountainous regions of Slovakia, Slovenia,Poland, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria. However, its seasonality leads to large fluctuations in employment.population in the off-season. On weakeninguse of recreational areas, especiallyforeign tourists is strongly reflected inpolitical and economic instability. An example of this is the difficult situation inthe first half of the 90s on the Adriaticresorts in Croatia and Montenegro.

In the future, the CEE region will participate in the pan-European and world markets as a consumer, primarily of high-tech equipment, energy carriers (primarily oil and gas), industrial raw materials and a supplier of competitive types of engineering, non-ferrous metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and food and flavor products. The deficit of foreign trade in the balance of payments, which is typical for the CEE countries, is partially covered by income from transit traffic, remittances from citizens who are temporarily employed in other states, and from international tourism.

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Features of the geological and tectonic structures determine the composition and nature of the geographical distribution of minerals in countries. Large (on a European scale) deposits are of the greatest economic importance: coal (the Upper Silesian basin in the south of Poland and the adjacent Ostrava-Karvina basin in the north-east of the Czech Republic), brown coal (Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic), oil and natural gas ( Romania, Albania), oil shale (Estonia), rock salt (Poland, Romania), phosphorites (Estonia), natural sulfur (Poland), lead-zinc ores (Poland, Serbia), bauxite (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary) , chromites and nickel (Albania); in a number of countries there are deposits of uranium ores of industrial importance.

CEE countries vary greatly in terms of the size, composition and quality of their forest resources. In the south of the region, in the mountainous regions of the Balkan Peninsula, as well as in the Carpathians, increased forest cover is characteristic with a predominance of conifers and beech, while in predominantly flat and heavily plowed Poland and Hungary, the availability of forests is much less. In Poland and the Czech Republic, a significant part of productive forests is represented by artificial plantations, primarily pines.

However, one of the main wealth of CEE is its soil and climatic resources. There are large areas of naturally fertile soils, mostly of the chernozem type. This is primarily the Lower and Middle Danubian plains, as well as the Upper Thracian lowland. Due to the extensiveness of agriculture before the Second World War, about 10 - 15 centners were collected here. from ha. Cereal crops. IN

In the 1980s, the yield reached 35-45 centners. per ha., but was still lower than the fees in some Western European countries with less humus-rich lands.

According to soil and climatic conditions and other natural resources, the CEE countries can be conditionally divided into two groups: northern (the Baltic countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia) and southern (other countries). These differences, consisting in higher temperatures during the growing season and more fertile soils in the southern group of countries, create an objective basis for the specialization and complementarity of both groups of countries in agricultural production. While most of the territory of the northern group of countries is located in the zone of sufficient moisture, in the southern - during the growing season, arid conditions often arise that necessitate artificial irrigation agriculture). At the same time, the climatic conditions of the southern group of countries, combined with healing mineral springs and wide outlets to warm seas, create important prerequisites for organizing recreation for residents not only of these countries, but also of the northern part of the region, as well as tourists from other, primarily European, states.

Population.

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