• corruption, which is widespread, since there’s no tradition of a critical media, nor is there much of a tradition to organize a democracy
• problems concerning the transition from communism to a free market system
• being kind of forced to choose between the EU plus the USA on the one hand and Russia on the other hand
• privatization of its industry, which created opportunities for some to get incredibly rich, but left most people rather poor
• trying to attract multinationals to invest in their countries by offering low wages and adequate infrastructure
• a brain drain to western countries, lots of talented people leave the region once they have a decent degree (they benefit from fairly ok and cheap education in their home country, but emigrate and other countries reap the benefits)
• Problems with the Roma minority
• The rise of extreme right wing ideologies
• Opposition to rights for the LGBT community
• Much more traditional roles for men and women, even more gender inequality than in the west
• An outdated bureaucratic apparatus
• Trouble regulating the newly embraced free market
• More taboos
• More traditional ethics, compare stances on euthanasia in the Netherlands with those in say, Slovakia
• The post-communist societies had to start from scratch in many different areas
• Especially older people were hard hit by the transition from communism to the so called free market
