Towards a human union: EEC social policy and European integration

Abstract

RECENTLY the problem of public disaffection from the Community has given rise to concern in EEC circles. The problem became increasingly acute with rising unemployment throughout the Community, but what in addition to this focused EEC decision-makers' attention on the needs of EEC citizens was the public debate over EEC membership in Britain and subsequent referendum campaign during which anti-marketeers emphazised the lack of benefits that ordinary citizens could expect from the EEC. Independent surveys of citizen attitudes towards the Community moreover revealed disaffection to be greatest in the EEC's periphery regions and among those with least knowledge of the Community, its goals and activities. Therefore, partly in response to a perceived need to alter the public's image of the EEC Community decision-makers began to accord greater attention to socio-economic matters believed to be of interest to the Community's urban masses and to revitalize the EEC's social policy.