Nowadays, the common denominator of involvement of the EastCentral Europe in the international arena, and above all, the premise determining community of interest expressed in the European Union is the migration crisis. Despite the different circumstances of activity in the context of the migration crisis, states in the region express similar opinions on the consequences of immigration for security in the region. Above all, they emphasise the implications of immigration for the internal security of states. Given the complex nature of migration, this article focuses on the phenomenon of immigration in the EU, determining the causes of the escalation of the influx of immigrants and, above all, identifying the consequences for the security of states of East-Central Europe.

After the collapse of the bipolar international system, a new line of “soft” division in Europe has been established in East-Central Europe. The article seeks to verify the hypothesis that Central and Eastern Europe is an international relations area but is not a cohesive, tightly-knit region united by common institutions, historical experience and the resulting awareness of a separate identity and a sense of community vis-à-vis the external world whereas the international order herein is a dynamic process undergoing evolution. Despite the passage of over twenty years since the collapse of the bipolar system, this process has not yet been completed.

In 2010, Barbara Budrich Publishers (Germany) published a book titled Political Science in Central-East Europe. Diversity and Convergence on the development and state of political science in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The book is a collection of 19 country reports (Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine), which, collectively, provide the much needed account on the discipline’s institutionalization throughout the region. Individual chapters – written by academic professors or lecturers – include such information as the state of research, teaching, major books and journals, international cooperation, public impact. The chapter on Polish political science was written by professor Teresa Sasinska-Klas, at the time of the publication, the President of the Polish Political Science Association.

The work is a compilation of well-chosen and documented works on local governments in the states of Central and Eastern Europe. The timeline that the authors have assumed has its starting point in the beginning of the 1990s, when the transformation processes of the states of the former Soviet block had begun. This also marks the beginning of the process of forming of democratic state structures, including local governments.

The aim of the paper is an attempt at evaluating the Eastern Partnership from the point of view of the socio-cultural dimension in a broad sense. Do cultural and civilisational factors influence relations between the EU and Eastern European and South Caucasus countries? Is the EU capable of further enlargement? The Eastern Partnership is experiencing significant turmoil (Russia-Ukraine war, unstable South Caucasus) which begs the question of the future of the policy. Moreover, the paper tackles the issue of the EU’s internal factors and their influence upon relations with Eastern countries.