Martin Potůček methods of public management and administration, collaboration in the field of education, etc. The history of systematic preparation of the post-communist candidate coun­tries 1 for accession started with the launching of the Copenhagen criteria of accession(1993). These criteria have been designed more as a technical(eco­nomic and political) instrument from above than as an appropriate tool to steer peoples' living conditions in the candidate countries. Legal, economic and political issues prevailed. First, candidate countries were asked to reform their national economies to be able to compete- and be compatible- with market economies of the old member states. They had to build robust and reliable institutions of political democracy. They were asked to adjust their legal and administrative systems to the acquis communautaire. These tasks were(at least in the formation of the corresponding institutional framework) successfully fulfilled by the beginning of the 21st century. The fast progress in both economic and political adjustment to these requirements has been astonishing and deserves high evaluation. On the other hand, genuine social goals were at the very bottom of the then list of priorities- limited to the preservation of individual human rights and the building of a loosely defined framework for social policy making. The containment or reduction of poverty and income inequalities, labour rights, a living wage and the alleviation of the fate of the marginalised groups, in other words, the fight against social exclusion, did not form an integral part of the Copenhagen criteria reform agendas. Most national social policies in the candidate countries in the beginning and the middle of the 1990s“consisted of the withdrawal of the state and the improvement of efficiency by the privatisation and marketisation of the services. These steps were to be completed by the reduction of the coverage and standards of all social benefits except social assistance, a well-targeted safety net for the poor”(Ferge, 2001). The European Council launched the economic nucleus of the Lisbon Strategy in March 2000, and enriched it by its social dimension in Nice in December 2000. Very soon, the environmental dimension followed suit(Gothenburg Summit, June 2001). It was the stream of new political initiatives, stressing the importance of human resources, quality of life, social cohesion, in short, the “social fabric” of contemporary societies. The Czech Republic was asked to 1. Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. 136