Three decades after the fall of the Berlin wall and one and a half decades after the Big Bang enlargement of the European Union (2004-2007), we revisit contrasting narratives about the benefit of both free trade and the EU enlargement for Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. We distinguish old, pre-2004 EU countries from CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004-2007, as well as from the CEE countries that have not become part of the EU, in particular Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine. Our analysis looks at two temporal windows: one from 1991 – the demise of the Eastern European free trade zone (COMECON) – to today, and the second zooming on the period following the enlargement process of 2004-2007. Our analysis points to an unfavourable turn of events for CEE countries, which appear to have experienced significant losses in their process of rapid integration in the world and EU economies. We are comparing these events in Central and Eastern Europe with the patterns of de-industrialisation and migration that took place in Latin America after a similar free trade shock starting in the 1970s.

柏林墙倒塌后的三十年和欧盟大爆炸扩大后的十五年（2004-2007年），我们重新审视了关于自由贸易和欧盟扩大对中欧和东欧的好处的对比性叙述（CEE）国家。我们将2004年前的旧欧盟国家与2004-2007年加入欧盟的CEE国家以及尚未加入欧盟的CEE国家（特别是白俄罗斯，摩尔多瓦和乌克兰）区分开来。我们的分析着眼于两个时间窗口：一个是从1991年（东欧自由贸易区（COMECON）消亡）到今天的时间窗，另一个是在2004-2007年扩大进程之后的时期。我们的分析指出，中欧和东欧国家发生了不利的变化，在世界和欧盟经济体的快速整合过程中似乎遭受了重大损失。我们将中欧和东欧的这些事件与1970年代类似的自由贸易冲击之后在拉丁美洲发生的去工业化和迁移的模式进行了比较。