Over the last years, the ‘region’ has become an issue in southeastern Europe in a political, economic and a socio-cultural sense. The reasons for the growing relevance of regional policy and regional planning and for the increase in regional self-awareness and identity are manifold. SEE nation states have been and still are highly centralized, the fact that was taken to the extreme in the socialist period, while the growing regionalism or even autonomist movements may be a counter reaction to this concentration of resources in the capitals and big cities.