The rising living standards across the region have been a by-product of remarkable economic and institutional transformation, which has shaken off the heavy burden of half a century of central planning. 2. Offering a platform for the integration into the global economy  The second good experience I would like to highlight is the global success of pan-European production chains.
This can be a win-win story for everybody in our continent. Exports from Central and Eastern Europe grew at an average pace of over 10 per cent per year in the decade prior to the global financial crisis. Even thereafter, in many of these countries export growth has been led by significant competitiveness gains.