THE ENLARGED EUROPEAN UNION - AT THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN HARMONIZATION AND DIVERSIFICATION?

Reflecting the welfare and economic systems in the European Union before the youngest enlargements in 2004 and 2007 one can divide four different general systems of regulation between the member states. After a short introduction to the Anglo-Saxon Model, the Continental Model, the Social-Democratic Model and the Southern European Model the article wants to analyse the several national systems of regulation in the new member states of the EU and Turkey. It tries to answer the question, if these countries are in a process of transformation towards one of the four models. The text analyses four central fields of economic and welfare regulation like the welfare system, the system of education and science, the regulative performance of the national labour markets and the general economic performance. Comparing the observed data with the average values of the countries representing one of the four models is the basis for an interpretation of national tendencies towards one of the four models. These tendencies can be observed, even if the text has to state that there are still big differences between the old and the new members of the EU and that a general analysis has to face a big heterogeneity in the group of new EU member states.