Social Guarantees for Public Servants in the European Union Member States: a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to analyze and compare social guarantees for public servants in several European
countries. Three groups of countries had been chosen for the comparison: 1) Germany and Belgium as an example of
career model civil service, 2) United Kingdom and Denmark as a case illustrating post model, 3) Estonia and Lithuania
as an example of new democracies. The comparison was based on three dimensions: the scope of social guarantees,
the legal regulation and functions and place of those guarantees in general motivation system. Author concludes
that there is no universally accepted definition of social guaranties, but the analysis of states’ legislation provides the
framework for the clarification of the concept. Often social guarantees compound of certain social rights, various
holidays and leaves, medical insurance, a range of benefits, compensation and other supportive means for civil
servants Different centralization / decentralization tendencies, some practises used in the private sector are observed
in the above mentioned countries.