20 years ago, eight Central and Eastern European, or CEE, countries, joined the European Union along with Cyprus and Malta.

Czechia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary.

Followed by the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 and Croatia in 2013,

these successive enlargements nearly doubled the number of EU member states,

and they came with many hopes for economic and social cohesion,

as well as for strengthened industrial relations in the region.

An anniversary can be a good occasion for reflection.

Vera Skiyanovich, lecturer in international relations in European studies at Leiden University

and co-editor of Transfer, the ETIUI's quarterly journal, is here to talk about the recent transfer

issue that aims to do exactly that.

I'm your host, Bethany Staunton, and you're listening to ETIP Podcast, Voices on the World of Work.

Hi, Vera, thanks so much for coming on the podcast today.

Thank you for having me.

So the title of the issue of transfer that we're going to talk about today

is 20 years after, perspectives on industrial relations in central and eastern Europe 20 years

after the EU enlargement. Now that's a big title. So let's break it up a bit and begin with just

one part of it. Perspectives on industrial relations in central and eastern Europe.

And I'll ask you a big question to match your big title.

Acknowledging what must be a great level of variety as we're talking about a range of countries

here, what are the key aspects that you would draw out in describing industrial relations in

this region today?

And how would you compare it to other regions of Europe?

...