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Institutional Performance and Compliance with EU Law: Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2010

Gerda Falkner
Gerda Falkner
Affiliation:
Institute for European Integration Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Strohgasse 45/DG, 1030 Vienna, Tel.: +43 1 51581 7555 / 7565, email: gerda.falkner@oeaw.ac.at
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Abstract

This article compares the performance of state institutions and compliance with EU law in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. The public institutions highlighted are of crucial relevance when it comes to enforcing EU social standards and include the court and legal systems as well as labour inspectorates and equal treatment authorities. Expert and practitioner assessments point to major shortcomings in their institutional performance. The procedural compliance pattern to which these shortcomings give rise closely resembles that found by previous studies in some Western European countries, notably Ireland and Italy. Thus, the four countries examined here fall within a ‘world of dead letters’ as far as their compliance with EU law is concerned. In this ‘world’, EU directives tend to be transposed in a politicised mode (although so far, this happened rather timely and correctly) and there is frequent non-compliance at the later stages of monitoring and enforcement.

Keywords

complianceEU lawenforcementstateEast Central Europe
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 30 , Special Issue 1: Performing to Type? Institutional Performance in New EU Member States , April 2010 , pp. 101 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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