The study by Avlijaš, Sonja, Bohle, Dorothee, Medve-Bálint, Gergő and Simons, Jasper .P.  explores how Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states have adjusted their domestic policies in response to changes in EU economic governance since the 2008 financial crisis. The main argument is that EU governance has become increasingly hybrid: while some areas (like finance) are more tightly regulated at the EU level, others (such as industrial policy) allow greater room for national experimentation. The article was published in JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies (D1).

In this context, the article shows that CEE countries are not simply passive rule-takers. They actively engage with EU-level changes, often mobilising actors beyond central governments (such as central banks or development banks) to manage their dependencies.

The article identifies three forms of domestic agency:

 - Adaptive – working within EU rules while exploiting available flexibility

 - Experimental – testing or stretching the boundaries of EU rules

 - Co-constitutive – where national policies feed back into and reshape EU-level rules

Rather than simply challenging or deviating from the EU project, CEE countries and EU governance are in a dynamic interaction that is gradually reshaping the functioning of the Single Market itself, with important implications for cohesion and potential fragmentation.