Accession and social policy: the case of Hungary

Abstract:

The EU started relatively late to inject social considerations into the enlargement process. A vision connected to the European Social Model could have been instrumental in handling the social problems emerging after the transition but did not play a basic role in shaping Hungarian social policy. Many factors and actors impacted on the changes that took place in social policy procedures and institutions. For instance, the ILO and the EU influenced labour market issues, while family policy was mostly shaped by home-bred ideologies, and to some extent the World Bank. Pension reform was fully steered by the World Bank. The EU had an important role in shaping social and civil dialogue. As the monitoring reports following the progress of the candidate countries show, the concerns of the EU remained economic and political. The reports approved the moves towards the neo-liberal model inspired by the monetarist agencies. This paper argues that the European impact in the social sphere has strengthened over recent years, and its main payoff is the growing interest and commitment of politics towards poverty and inclusion, and the widening practice of civil and social dialogue.

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