These comparative tables of social protection systems, prepared by the Mutual Information System on Social Protection of the Council of Europe (MISSCEO), summarise the situation of the legislation on 1 January 2005 in 14 member states: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Montenegro, "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", Turkey and Ukraine, as well as Australia, Canada and New Zealand.The aim is to provide concise, up-to-date and factual information which is objective and comparable, valuable both for those concerned with social policy and as a tool for academic research.