This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
Interactive chart Poland is the EU’s sixth-largest economy by size, according to Eurostat. It trails Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. More interesting, however, is to look at the shifts that have reshaped Europe over the past 30 years – both at the country level and across its regions.
The strength of nations
Over the past three decades, the economic structure of the European Union has changed markedly. Germany’s share of the GDP of today’s EU-27 fell from 31.3% in 1995 to 23.8% in 2025. France and Italy also saw their shares decline, from 19.2% to 15.9% and from 14.2% to 12.0%, respectively. This does not mean that the economies of these countries shrank in absolute terms. Rather, they grew more slowly than the EU as a whole, causing their relative economic weight to decline gradually. Spain, by contrast, increased its share from 7.5% to 9%, while the Netherlands’ rose from 5.5% to 6.2%.
Interactive chart The biggest beneficiaries of these shifts, however, were the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, along with Ireland. Poland’s share of the GDP of today’s EU has almost tripled, from 1.7% in 1995 to 4.9% in 2025. That represents the largest increase among the EU’s major economies. Ireland grew even faster in relative terms: its share quadrupled, from 0.8% to 3.2%. In Ireland’s case, however, the figures are partly a consequence of the activities of multinational corporations and the particular way GDP is calculated. Romania, Czechia, Lithuania and Estonia also recorded significant increases.
...and regions
These shifts were not confined to a handful of individual countries. They affected entire regions of Europe. The share of the traditional Western core – defined here as Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg – fell from 76.9% of the GDP of today’s EU in 1995 to 64.5% in 2025. Although these countries still account for nearly two-thirds of the bloc’s economy, their relative weight has steadily declined in favor of other parts of Europe.
Interactive chart Southern Europe has also slightly increased its share since 1995. I classify Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Malta in this group. Most of the increase, however, reflects their rapid growth before the euro-zone crisis. During that period, their combined share rose from 10.5% to a peak of 14.2% in 2009. Today, it stands at 12.2%.
Northern European countries also increased their share of the EU economy, from 7.8% to 10.1%. But this entire increase is attributable to Ireland. Denmark, Finland and Sweden, taken together, maintained a roughly 7% share of EU GDP over the 30-year period.
The biggest beneficiary of this process was Central and Eastern Europe, whose share of the GDP of today’s EU rose from 4.7% to 12.9%, almost tripling. This shows that Poland’s rapid development was not an isolated case, but part of a broader process of economic convergence across the region.
Central and Eastern European countries benefited from integration into the single market, inflows of foreign investment and rapid productivity growth, steadily increasing their share of the EU economy. At the same time, the share of Western Europe’s largest economies declined, although they remain by far the Union’s biggest economies. Despite its dynamic growth, Poland now accounts for 4.9% of EU GDP, while Germany alone represents nearly a quarter of the bloc’s entire economy. Even so, over the past three decades, the economic center of gravity of the European Union has gradually shifted eastward.