Social security in central and eastern European countries: Continuity and change

Continued social protection in central and eastern Europe is vital in order to compensate for the loss of rights previously provided by the State, to ease the process of economic change and, not least, to maintain social cohesion without altogether subjecting populations to the vagaries of the market economy system. Long steeped in the tradition of social insurance, many of these countries had adapted their systems of protection to the Soviet model, while reflecting certain universal trends of social security policy, with an emphasis on family assistance. More recently, schemes have been complemented by unemployment benefits and by mechanisms to better take inflation into account, without prejudice to the necessary guarantee of a minimum level of assistance. They must still be adapted to facilitate occupational mobility, to promote employment, to involve the people covered by them in their management, and to deal with deteriorating health services, while taking account of problems stemming from resource limitation. Although reform must not obscure the need for continuity, uncertainty remains as to its outcome.