The Centra
l European Geodynamics Project CERGOP-2, funded by the European Union from 2003 to 2006 under the 5th Framework Programme, benefited from repeated measurements of the coordinates of epoch and permanent GPS stations of the Centra
l European GPS Reference Network (CEGRN), starting in 1994. Here we report on the resu
lts of the systematic processing of avai
lab
le data up to 2005. The ana
lysis has yie
lded ve
locities for some 60 sites, covering a variety of Centra
l European tectonic provinces, from the Adria Indenter to the Tauern Window, the Dinarides, the Pannonian Basin, the Vrancea Seismic Zone and the Carpathian Mountains. The estimated ve
locities define kinematica
l patterns which out
line, with varying spatia
l reso
lution depending on the station density and history, the present-day surface kinematics in Centra
l Europe. Horizonta
l ve
locities are ana
lyzed after remova
l from the ITRF2000 estimated ve
locities of a rigid rotation accounting for the mean motion of Europe: a
![](http://www.sciencedirect.com/scidirimg/entities/223c.gif)
lt="not, vert, simi
lar" tit
le="not, vert, simi
lar" border="0">2.3 mm/year north–south oriented convergence rate between Adria and the Southern A
lps that can be considered to be the present-day ve
locity of the Adria Indenter re
lative to the European Fore
land. An eastward extrusion zone initiates at the Tauern Window. The
latera
l eastward f
low towards the Pannonian Basin exhibits a gent
le gradient from 1 to 1.5 mm/year immediate
ly east of the Tauern Window to zero in the Pannonian Basin. This kinematic continuity imp
lies that the Pannonian p
late fragment recent
ly suggested by seismic data does not require a specific Eu
lerian po
le. On the southeastern boundary of the Adria microp
late, we report a ve
locity drop from 4 to 4.5 mm/year motion near Matera to
![](http://www.sciencedirect.com/scidirimg/entities/223c.gif)
lt="not, vert, simi
lar" tit
le="not, vert, simi
lar" border="0">1 mm/year north of the Dinarides, in the southwestern part of the Pannonian Basin. A positive ve
locity gradient as one moves south from West Ukraine across Rumania and Bu
lgaria is estimated to be 2 mm/year on a sca
le of 600–800 km, as if the crust were dragged by the counterc
lockwise rotation a
long the North Anato
lian Fau
lt Zone. This regime apparent
ly does not interfere with the Vrancea Seismic Zone: earthquakes there are sufficient
ly deep (>100 km) that the britt
le deformation at depth can be considered as decoup
led from the creep at the surface. We conc
lude that mode
ls of the Quaternary tectonics of Centra
l and Eastern Europe shou
ld not neg
lect the
long wave
length, near
ly aseismic deformation affecting the upper crust in the Romanian and Bu
lgarian regions.