Professor Gerda Falkner is Director of the Institute for European Integration Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria; and Associate Professor, Institute of Government, University of Vienna, Austria. She was earlier senior researcher and research group director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. She is the author of EU Social Policy in the 1990s: Towards a Corporatist Policy Community (Routledge 1998) and (with Oliver Treib, Miriam Hartlapp and Simone Leiber) Complying with Europe: EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States (CUP 2005), which won the European Union Studies Association's Best Book Prize in 2006. Dr Elisabeth Holzleithner is Assistant Professor in the Department of Legal Philosophy, University of Vienna. She has published widely on issues of gender equality and (non-) discrimination from a legal perspective. Dr Oliver Treib is Head of the Department of Political Science at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna. Previously at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, he is the co-author (with Gerda Falkner, Miriam Hartlapp and Simone Leiber) of Complying with Europe: EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States (1995) and the author of a German language monograph on the role of domestic politics in the implementation of EU Directives, as well as a number of articles and chapters on related subjects.

'This rich and fine-grained study offers valuable insights into how European Union social legislation is operating in practice in several of the member states from central Europe. The authors draw out thoughtful recommendations on ways of promoting more systematic compliance in the future.' Helen Wallace, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

• Contents: Preface; Introduction: the challenge of implementation research in the new member states, Gerda Falkner, Oliver Treib and Elisabeth Holzleithner; Czech Republic, Clemens Wiedermann; Hungary, Emmanuelle Causse; Slovakia, Marianne Schulze; Slovenia, Petra Furtlehner; Conclusions: the state of EU social standards in Central and Eastern European practice, Oliver Treib and Gerda Falkner; References; Index.

Professor Gerda Falkner is Director of the Institute for European Integration Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria; and Associate Professor, Institute of Government, University of Vienna, Austria. She was earlier senior researcher and research group director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. She is the author of EU Social Policy in the 1990s: Towards a Corporatist Policy Community (Routledge 1998) and (with Oliver Treib, Miriam Hartlapp and Simone Leiber) Complying with Europe: EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States (CUP 2005), which won the European Union Studies Association's Best Book Prize in 2006. Dr Elisabeth Holzleithner is Assistant Professor in the Department of Legal Philosophy, University of Vienna. She has published widely on issues of gender equality and (non-) discrimination from a legal perspective. Dr Oliver Treib is Head of the Department of Political Science at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna. Previously at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, he is the co-author (with Gerda Falkner, Miriam Hartlapp and Simone Leiber) of Complying with Europe: EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States (1995) and the author of a German language monograph on the role of domestic politics in the implementation of EU Directives, as well as a number of articles and chapters on related subjects.

'This rich and fine-grained study offers valuable insights into how European Union social legislation is operating in practice in several of the member states from central Europe. The authors draw out thoughtful recommendations on ways of promoting more systematic compliance in the future.' Helen Wallace, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

• Contents: Preface; Introduction: the challenge of implementation research in the new member states, Gerda Falkner, Oliver Treib and Elisabeth Holzleithner; Czech Republic, Clemens Wiedermann; Hungary, Emmanuelle Causse; Slovakia, Marianne Schulze; Slovenia, Petra Furtlehner; Conclusions: the state of EU social standards in Central and Eastern European practice, Oliver Treib and Gerda Falkner; References; Index.