European Socialist Regimes’ Fateful Engagement with the West This edited volume analyses European socialist countries’ strategy of engagement with the West and the European Economic Community in the “long 1970s”. The book focuses on a time when the socialist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe banked their hopes for prosperity and stability on enhanced relations with the West. Crossing the traditional differences among diverse fields of historiography, it assesses the complex influence of European and global processes of transformation on the socialist elites’ reading of the international political and economic environment and their consequent decision-making. The volume also explores the debate in each country among and within the elites involved in policymaking as they elaborated this strategic view and coped with shortcomings and unexpected turns. A comparative analysis of national cases shows a shared logic and common patterns, together with national variations and a plurality of views on the desirability of exchanges with their capitalist neighbours and on the ways to promote them. The multinational coverage of seven countries makes this volume a starting point for anyone interested in each socialist state’s foreign policy, intra-bloc relations, economic strategy, transformation and collapse, relations with the European Community and access to the EU. This book will be of much interest to students and researchers of Cold War studies, European history, and international relations. Angela Romano is Lecturer of International Political Economy, University of Glasgow, UK. Federico Romero is Professor of Post-War European Cooperation and Integration, and Dean of Research at the European University Institute, Italy. Cold War History Series Editors: Odd Arne Westad John F. Kennedy School of Government, USA Michael Cox, London School of Economics & Political Science, UK In the new history of the Cold War that has been forming since 1989, many of the established truths about the international conflict that shaped the latter half of the twentieth century have come up for revision. The present series is an attempt to make available interpretations and materials that will help further the develop- ment of this new history, and it will concentrate in particular on publishing expo- sitions of key historical issues and critical surveys of newly available sources. The Diplomacy of Détente Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz Stephan Kieninger America and Romania in the Cold War A Differentiated Détente, 1969–80 Paschalis Pechlivanis The Greek Junta and the International System A Case Study of Southern European Dictatorships, 1967–74 Edited by Antonis Klapsis, Constantine Arvanitopoulos, Evanthis Hatzivassiliou and Effie G. H. Pedaliu Secrecy, Public Relations and the British Nuclear Debate How the UK Government Learned to Talk about the Bomb, 1970–83 Daniel Salisbury US Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War in Africa A Bridge between Global Conflict and the New World Order, 1988–1994 Flavia Gasbarri European Socialist Regimes’ Fateful Engagement with the West National Strategies in the Long 1970s Edited by Angela Romano and Federico Romero For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Cold-War-History/book-series/SE0220 European Socialist Regimes’ Fateful Engagement with the West National Strategies in the Long 1970s Edited by Angela Romano and Federico Romero First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Angela Romano and Federico Romero; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Angela Romano and Federico Romero to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Romano, Angela, 1976– editor. | Romero, Federico, editor. Title: European socialist regimes’ fateful engagement with the West : national strategies in the long 1970s / edited by Angela Romano and Frederico Romero. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Cold war history | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020023104 (print) | LCCN 2020023105 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367356170 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429340703 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Europe, Eastern—Foreign relations—Europe, Western. | Europe, Western—Foreign relations—Europe, Eastern. | Europe, Eastern—Foreign economic relations—Europe, Western. | Europe, Western—Foreign economic relations—Europe, Eastern. | Communist countries—Foreign relations—Europe, Western. | Communist countries—Foreign economic relations—Europe, Western. | Europe, Eastern—Politics and government—1945–1989. | Europe, Eastern— Economic policy—1945–1989. Classification: LCC DJK45.E85 E95 2021 (print) | LCC DJK45.E85 (ebook) | DDC 327.470409/047—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023104 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023105 ISBN: 978-0-367-35617-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-34070-3 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of tables vii Acknowledgements viii List of abbreviations ix List of contributors xi Introduction 1 ANGELA ROMANO AND FEDERICO ROMERO 1 Socialism Between Détente and Globalisation 11 FEDERICO ROMERO 2 Pan-Europe: A continental space for cooperation(s) 31 ANGELA ROMANO 3 Attraction and Repulsion: Hungary and European integration 50 PÁL GERMUSKA 4 From ‘Economic Miracle’ to the ‘Sick Man of the Socialist Camp’: Poland and the West in the 1970s 78 ALEKSANDRA KOMORNICKA 5 Drifting Westward? East Germany and Integrated Europe 107 MAXIMILIAN GRAF 6 Czechoslovakia’s Pan-European Relations During the “Long 1970s” 134 PAVEL SZOBI 7 Balancing Between Socialist Internationalism and Economic Internationalisation: Bulgaria’s economic contacts with the EEC 159 ELITZA STANOEVA vi Contents 8 Romania Turns West: National and international rationales 190 ELENA DRAGOMIR 9 From Liberalism to Underdevelopment: The Yugoslav elites facing Western European economic integration in the “long 1970s” 221 BENEDETTO ZACCARIA 10 Conclusions 249 ANGELA ROMANO AND FEDERICO ROMERO Appendix 1: Tables A.1 to A.6 258 Appendix 2: List of Archival Collections 264 Index 267 Tables 8.1 The evolution of Romania-EEC commercial exchanges, 1970–1984 (in million US dollars) 206 8.2 The evolution of Romania’s exports to the EEC, 1973–1983 (in million US dollars and percentages) 207 A.1 Foreign trade of selected countries (in billion US dollars) 258 A.2 European centrally planned economies’ trade with the EEC (without the USSR, in billion US dollars) 259 A.3 Exports of European centrally planned economies (including the USSR) by regions 260 A.4 Export structure of European centrally planned economies (including the USSR, in percentages) 261 A.5 Gross external debts of selected countries (in billion US dollars) 262 A.6 Average annual growth of GDP in selected countries 263 Acknowledgements Our research has been generously funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement no. 669194). We have been immensely aided and continually supported by the Department of History and Civilization and other parts of the European University Institute, which has hosted us for five years. In particular, we owe immense gratitude to Serena Belligoli, Laura Borgese and Serena Scarselli, whose efficient, effective and most active assistance has made our work both possible and pleasurable. Many scholars have contributed to our efforts with useful suggestions, sharp criticism and precious advice in the numerous workshops and seminars that year after year have marked the progress of our work. They made us think and rethink what we were doing and kept us on our toes. Our work would have been poorer without their contributions and we want to thank them all most deeply: Melanie Arndt, Péter Balázs, Fritz Bartel, Dorothee Bohle, Laurien Crump, Lukas Dovern, Valentina Fava, Rossitza Guentcheva, Suvi Kansikas, Pavel Kolár, Mikhail Lip- kin, Sara Lorenzini, James Mark, Corina Mavrodin, Mikls Mitrovits, Wolfgang Mueller, Gottfried Niedhart, Victor Petrov, Silvio Pons, Svetozar Rajak, Jessica Reinisch, Tobias Rupprecht, Adelina Stefan, André Steiner, Max Trecker, Franek Tyszka, Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, Milica Uvalić and Vladislav Zubok. Abbreviations BIS Bank for International Settlements (BIS) BKP Bulgarian Communist Party (Balgarska komunisticheska partiya) CAP Common Agricultural Policy CCP Common Commercial Policy CESTC Commission for Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation CFP Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) CIER Committee for International Economic Relations CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance CPC Communist Party of Czechoslovakia CPS Communist