After joining the EU in 1995, uncertainties over the future legal and administrative system remained latent. But there was also rising awareness of Austria's possibilities to influence the decision making processes in Brussels. The Austrian system of social partnership, based on centralized wage...

Following the breakdown of central planning in Eastern Europe in 1989, all the reforming countries bordering the EU initiated processes, though at different speeds, to eventually join the EU as members. These countries were, except for Poland, also bordering the then new EU-Member country...