University of Tehran Published jointly with Iranian World Studies Association Journal of World Sociopolitical Studies 2588-3119 6 4 2022 10 01 Neofunctionalism Theory Put to Test in Central and Eastern Europe 705 742 93507 10.22059/wsps.2023.363063.1368 EN Ali Sabbaghian Assistant Professor of Regional Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Rajdeep Singh M.A. in European Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 0000-0003-1218-134X Journal Article 2022 07 30 The Three Seas Initiative harks back as another version of strategic integration in the Central and Eastern Europe. Based on the Neofunctionalism, a functional-based regionalism is expected to take roots in the region with the spillover effect into the political and institutional levels; therefore, the main question of the research study is: what is the effect of the EU on the regionalism in the Central and Eastern Europe? The hypothesis of this research states that the EU’s highly developed institutional arrangement has led to a specific type of regional arrangement to take place in the CEE under the Three Seas Initiative, which lacks highly supranational institutionalism, even though it maintains high functional and political dimensions. The main research question was investigated using the qualitative method, namely descriptive method within the theoretical framework of Neofunctionalism. Results indicate that while Central European regionalism is under the effect of political and functional spillover as well as spill-around in institutionalization, the divide between Central European conservative and Western liberal values has been used by Eurosceptic parties to accelerate the process. https://wsps.ut.ac.ir/article_93507_8d6b26f709daf740f99ce0c1057de90e.pdf