Toward a European Social Policy—At Last?

Abstract

Abstract The achievements in European social policy are generally considered weak at best. The European Union’s apparent liberal and supply-side bias lends credence to the idea of a convergence towards the ‘hegemonic American model’. Yet employment policies and social protection policies have been formally included in European competencies under a specific procedure, the ‘Open Method of Coordination’. The unintended consequence of European economic and monetary integration is that different European organizations now compete for competence in the growing EU social field. This leads to considerable innovation in policy orientation and practices.