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Transposition of EU social policy in Poland: are there different `worlds of compliance' in East and West?

Institute for Economic and Social Research, Düsseldorf, Germany, simone-leiber{at}boeckler.de

Recent studies on the implementation of EU social policy directives in the EU-15 demonstrate a considerable compliance gap. These findings lead to the question: What about the new member states? Will Eastern enlargement contribute to a further widening of this gap? This article provides a systematic comparison of the legal transposition of six selected EU social policy directives in Poland with transposition (problems) of the same directives in the EU-15. The article shows that policy effects of the EU social acquis in Poland were not higher than in the old member states. Extensive EU monitoring has contributed to an extremely high transposition performance of Poland. Recent research on compliance distinguishes three `worlds of compliance' in the EU-15. Analysing the legal transposition of EU social policy directives in Poland shows that, as yet, there are no signs of a particular fourth `Eastern world of compliance'.

Key Words: compliance • EU enlargement • Europeanization • Poland • social policy

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Journal of European Social Policy, Vol. 17, No. 4, 349-360 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0958928707081066


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