During the preparations for EU enlargement, the European Commission constantly sought to improve its knowledge of the challenges to social cohesion, and of the strategic policy responses adopted in candidate countries to tackle these challenges. An important milestone was the 2002 project to prepare for the accession states to plug into the ongoing process of exchange of good practice within the Union. With this in mind, a series of studies was conducted to describe and analyze the social protection systems in the 13 candidate countries on the basis of a common methodology, identifying the major challenges facing each in the social, economic and demographic contexts, assessing recent reform efforts, and highlighting major issues for further reform.
TÁRKI prepared the Hungarian study, which covered such issues as pensions, health, poverty and social exclusion. Using a common format, the country studies described and analyzed the main features of the social protection system as it was then, considering the economic, financial, social and demographic context in which the system operated.
Downloads the country study on Hungary here.
Lead researchers: Róbert Gál, Péter Szivós
