Why Brexit Will Do Little to Change the Political Contours of the European Social Dimension

Paul Copeland

doi:10.17645/pag.v7i3.2126

Abstract

Integration within the European social dimension, understood as the EU’s competence in the field of employment and social policy, has been fraught with obstacles. Divisions between the EU’s Member States have limited integration and resulted in a complex and piecemeal system of governance that is low down on the EU’s list of priorities. The UK is often regarded as a major obstacle limiting the scope of integration in the field and this is not without good reason. Historically, the UK has formed coalitions to block policy negotiations within the European Council and has pushed for minimal neoliberal obligations in the field. The UK’s departure from the EU could result in a step-change for the European social dimension. However, as this article will argue, the UK’s departure from the EU will do little to alter the current dominance of a neoliberal market-led ideology, as it currently transcends the political agency of the UK.

Highlights

The European social dimension, understood as the EU’s competence in the field of employment and social policy, represents a patchwork of governance tools from different ideological positions across the EU’s political space
Since 2010 neoliberalism has been consolidated within the European social dimension, while the UK has assumed a more outlying position. This suggests that the political contours of the European social dimension will not change once the UK leaves the EU and that the political ideology of neoliberalism transcends the influence of Westminster and has deep roots across the EU
The UK has been a pivotal outlier in the construction of the European social dimension, first, by limiting the emergence of the post-war Keynesian social democratic vision that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and second, by becoming supportive of a neoliberal vision for the field throughout 1997–2010

Summary

Introduction

The European social dimension, understood as the EU’s competence in the field of employment and social policy, represents a patchwork of governance tools from different ideological positions across the EU’s political space. Commodification is to be understood as policies designed to make wages from employment the linchpin of a person’s existence, while de-commodification refers to policies which enable individuals or families to uphold socially acceptable living standards independent of the market and its peaks and troughs (Esping-Andersen, 1990) This vision of a European social dimension did not last and by the mid-1990s post-war European social democracy. The second section of this article outlines the nature of the European social dimension, the shifting political contours of the field up until 2010, and the UK’s role in their creation. The Political Contours of the European Social Dimension and the UK’s Role in Their Creation

The European Social Dimension in Context

The Role of the UK

The Contours of a Post-Brexit European Social Dimension

Findings

Conclusion