Every other region that received both Objective 1 and convergence funding got wealthier including Greece, Latvia, Slovakia and Spain.

BBC: Rhondda

More importantly, the entire region still suffers from a huge "convergence gap" with the West, marked by lower living standards and poorer infrastructure.

BBC: Europe's Eastern periphery

In addition, the conference will offer the opportunity to discuss on the way to streamline the different cultural cooperation platforms at the ministerial level existing in the South-East European region, in order to improve their coordination and to devise possible forms of convergence.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

The Catalan nationalist Convergence and Union coalition, or CiU, the ruling party in the northeastern region of Catalonia, also has seen recent allegations of corruption against current or former leaders, and some of their family members.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS