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The years of transition in Central and Eastern Europe brought with them the unprecedented - in these societies - phenomenon of restructuring with dismissals and growing unemployment. Moreover with the emergence and development of the private sector, new enterprises started to leave former corporate models behind to adopt new forms of employment and working conditions arrangements to better adapt to the newly competitive environment. Further many of these countries have now joined the European Union and have started to progressively harmonize their labour laws to community legislation, something that should accelerate their economic and social catching-up process while profoundly influencing their World of work. However there is no much evidence collected so far an these countries' enterprise practices in terms of labour contracts, working time, and other working conditions something that this articles proposes to investigate more in depth. At enterprise level are the conditions at work following similar patterns in new EU member states? Have they started converging in a significant way towards EU standards? Or are they already following diverging trends in certain areas? What could be said about the general direction of the World of work in the EU 25?

In their negotiations for accession to the EU, candidate countries have made important social policy commitments. These include the promotion of social dialogue up to EU standards and the application of the principles and values that prevail in this area. Accordingly, governments of candidate countries are trying to promote appropriate conditions for such social dialogue to take place, while social partners are reinforcing their structures to play their full role in the social dialogue process. Nevertheless, there has been little debate about the real objectives of social dialogue in the candidate countries. What is social dialogue for, what has it achieved so far, and why is it so important to develop it further? Who are expected to be the ultimate beneficiaries of social dialogue mechanisms and practices? What implications might current features of social dialogue in candidate countries have in the enlarged European Union? This article provides a first tentative assessment of the coverage of social dialogue - and thus of the effectiveness of social dialogue mechanisms - in the candidate countries.