Introduction

This paper considers the evolution of labour laws in ten Central European countries since they abandoned communist rule at the beginning of the last decade. In alphabetical order these countries are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. In the aftermath of the downfall of communism, all ten countries shared common goals of establishing political democracy, developing a market economy and eventually joining the European Union. In the early 1990s, each applied for EU membership. At its meeting in Copenhagen in 1993, the Council of the European Union decided to welcome their candidatures provided that the EU was satisfied that the applicant countries fulfilled the following criteria (commonly referred to as the “Criteria of Copenhagen”):

Substantial Community assistance was placed at the disposal of the candidate countries to help them build the capacity required to meet the Criteria of Copenhagen, and the European Commission regularly monitored and assessed their progress.