EN
The authors analyze tendencies in economic territorial diversification of nine states of Eastern Europe that became the EU member countries in 2004 and 2007. The investigation is focused on NTS-3 level of classification, which justifies the following countries as objects of the research as their regions are well in line with the NTS-3: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary. The main thesis of this investigation is that a strong region means its strong metropolis. The empirical analysis confirms the thesis.