All over Europe people are talking about the «Greek sickness.» It is an inescapable fact that the parlous financial situation of the southern EU member states poses a challenge to the euro and the European Union as a whole. At the same time the centraland eastern European states have been hit hard by the economic crisis as they attempt to catch up with the older EU member states. 1 May was the sixth anniversary of the accession of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. What progress have these countries made in the intervening period?