EN
The aim of this paper is to examine main social aspects related to activities of TNCs in the new EU Member States and to answer the question whether TNCs could help solve some social problems of recipient countries or if their activities are a source of additional imbalances in the social sphere. The UNCTAD, OECD and CEIC statistics data bases are used to analyze and evaluate the scale and consequences of TNCs activities in the new EU member States. The empirical analysis is limited to four countries, i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The research results show that TNCs can play a positive role in smoothing some social problems in host countries which are unemployment, poverty and social exclusion. TNCs create and maintain a vast portion of jobs in the new EU Member States offering higher compensation for employees than domestic firms. The tendency towards regional concentration of FDI in developed regions has an ambiguous impact on the socio-economic cohesion of the enlarged EU examined at the regional level. TNCs seem to stimulate disparities between regions of the EU and within these regions. TNCs are corporate social responsibility leaders in the new EU Member States.