Social realities and EU social policy in the accession countries
Social realities and EU social policy in the accession countries

Summary/Abstract: For Western politicians and a great deal of fly-in academics and journalists, the reformed east seems to present a uniform picture. They arrive at modernised airports, stay at a 5-star hotel, converse with Westerntrained young native professionals in a Western language, read the Prague Post/Budapest Sun/Warsaw Voice/Baltic Times for the US-perceived version of local events, look at the macroeconomic data which are mostly good, stroll through the renovated inner cities of Tallinn, Vilnius, Prague and Budapest, be wined and dined in the best restaurants, and return with the impression that everything is good and well, that people are happy and more and more prosperous, that the transition worked equitably and effectively, and that a new tiger economy is well on its way. Accession to the European Union, then, appears to be unproblematic and the enlargement negotiations and the adoption and implementation of EU legislation, including its social policy acquis, a pure technicality. In fact this is, at best, only one-half of the truth. Realities are, unsurprisingly, more complex. All the social indicators – as well as visits to the less glamorous parts of the capitals and into the regions and the countryside – reveal a more differentiated picture. The author therefore contrasts his personal view with these far spread impressions and discusses the evident social crisis in central and eastern Europe.

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