Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: NN, Hamburg University of Ecomomy and Policy (-), course: Human Development, 18 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: It is by now more than a decade ago that the formally centrally planned economies in Central and Eastern Europe have started to transform into market economies when the collapse of the Soviet system was confirmed in 1989. In fact, they constitute a unique historical example with a large set of economies undergoing this extremely drastic systemic change within a very short period of time. The adoption of a new model based on free market economy supports the rebuilding of one Europe which will benefit from high economic and social growth potential as well as political stability and security. One essential characteristic of a free market economy is a high proportion of services. Realizing this quality in the transition economies signifies a great challenge as their service sector was extremely underdeveloped in the planned economies. In this paper, the development of the service sector in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe are depicted on the background of the economic characteristics of their socialist past. In this portrayal, both domestic growth and international trade of services will be accounted for. Finally, it will be discussed in which way the service sector represents a strong impetus in the fight against unemployment and hence contributes to a sustainable development in the future.