2. Poland and Hungary have one thing surely in common: both of them went through COMMUNISM

4. Although, during Communism it was always said, that everybody is equal, there were MORE EQUALS, and others were OPPRESSED!!!

5. Oppressed and discriminated groups were the following: »Gypsies »Unemployed »Disabled

7. Regardless of the intention to maintain the image of a perfect state, there were problems that had to be recognised and dealt with: by the end of the 1960s the lack of a proper insurance system meant that a large number of elderly people were without pensions disabled children, orphans and deviant young people were kept in old mansions, hidden from society

8. The postwar Communist regimes in Eastern Europe had no official racial policies, but tried to regiment the Roma and force them into permanent settlements despite the general hostility of local populations. Such policies collapsed when communism disintegrated, but the fate of the Roma apparently worsened.

9. Everybody had to live according to the communist ideal of WORK. So, nobody could be called unemployed, but there were still a lot of people, who were HIDDEN UNEMPLOYEDS.

10. Communist social policy was premised on full employment far more than any Western welfare state ever was. The guarantee of a job had been a central pillar of state socialist legitimacy ever since post-war reconstruction, when the Communist Party staked its claim on having put the nation back to work. Full employment provided Hungarians with basic economic security and represented central planning's superiority over capitalism.

11. Consequently, the communist social safety net was not set up to address involuntary joblessness. Under communism the assumption had been that all able-bodied citizens would work.

12. It is important to understand the particular political and economic roles that social benefits played under communism. Social policy was subordinated to the goals of rapid industrialization and the Communist Party's monopoly of power.

14. In Poland the Socialist state was committed both to centralisation and the redistribution of income. Its aim was to counteract excessive social inequalities so as to implement the principles of social justice.

15. To reach to main aim of socialism, the socialist welfare state, there were some gorups of people, who were supported. These were the ones who suffered of old age, illness or a disability. But those, who were unemployed, alcoholics, or homeless were hidden, because issues like these weren’t allowed to be present!

16. In the 1950s, Communism totally extended, and all social institutions disappeared in Poland. So, the discrimination and oppression of different social groups just continously grew.

17. There was no evident and mass unemployment in Poland in the years 1945-1989. At the beginning of 1990 Polish government took up the economical reforms what linked to the declination and restrictions of production, and, as a result to dismissions of workers.

18. For the typical Hungarian wage earner life was even less optimistic. According to a survey in 1992, 73 percent of Hungarians said their overall household economic situation was worse off than five years earlier, compared to seven percent who said better. This means, that people were oppressed in a way, that they didn’t even know that they were oppressed. They had some kind of a social safety, but there weren’t any opportunites for development and changing of social status.

20. After the political and socio-economic changes, in POLAND the social welfare system was able to focus on traditional social problems such as alcoholism, disability and crime, however new problems have also emerged, like: drug abuse, unemployment, homelessness and deep poverty in some local communities. Political changes have led to the creation of local governments who are now directly responsible for the quality of life in local communities.

21. After the defeat of communism in Poland, it seemed that the minority groups would be able to develop their communities without the hindrances the former authorities put in their way. But it is one thing to accept legally and other to accept morally.

22. Since 1989 most small- and medium- sized state-owned enterprises have been privatized, and the Government launched privatizations of major state- owned enterprises. Significant reforms continued in other areas as well, including pensions, health, decentralization of government, and education.

23. Today the Polish state tends to deliver services and social assurance for both employed and unemployed citizens!

24. In HUNGARY The fall of communism and the new political system found people unprepared for the changes which included freedom, choice, individualism, and enormous risk. For example, under the new system every other family had one unemployed member, and one in every three families had an income lower than the subsistence level.

25. Between 1990 and 1991, in the first years of post-communism, social spending actually grew from 25 to 30 percent of GDP before falling to 22 percent in 1996. New programs for unemployment training, and poverty relief were also created. These were the first steps to lower the extent of oppression in Hungary!

26. After a whole decade of reforms the governments in the transition countries have managed to achieve a standard of living for their populations, lagging far behind the levels in the EU member states.

27. But for today both countries have become EU members, and have bigger chance to fight against discrimination and oppression!