In recent years, the European Union (EU) has expanded by including two additional "less developed" new members, Bulgaria and Romania, and in the near future several other neighboring countries are on the list. The case of the region of east Macedonia and Thrace, a remote region that neighbors Bulgaria, might offer some insights into the changes which will occur in the economy of these new EU members. Changes in the structure of the regional economy are traced by estimated various indices of structural changes using two input-output tables, the 1980 I-O, a year before Greece's accession to eu, and the 1997 I-O, one and a half decade after the implementation of several EU supported programmes. The cause of structural changes cannot be identified by applying this methodology, only the final outcome in terms of sectoral structure. Results reveal that significant transformations took place in this regional economy altering the interdependence between producing and consuming sectors. It is not clear that this change has moved the whole regional economy to a more competitive level as highly supported sectors grew substantially.