Chapter 17 The EUs Social Dimension

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Chapter 17The EUs Social Dimension

• Cini (ed.) European Union Politics, 2nd edition
• OUP Online Teaching Resources

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Structure of the Lecture

• The Development of Social Dimension
• European Social Policy
• The European Social Fund
• The Open Method of Coordination
• Social Partnership at the EU Level

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The Development of Social Dimension

• The Treaty of Rome
• Social policy as a national affair
• Limited regulation equal pay, the Social Fund
• The Single European Act
• Minimum harmonization concerning health and
  safety of workers
• The Maaschrict Treaty
• The protocol on social policy the social chapter

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The Development of Social Dimension

• The Amsterdam Treaty
• Fight against discrimination on the grounds of
  sex, age...
• The Nice Treaty
• The use of the co-decision procedure on certain
  issues

5
European Social Policy

• There has been an increasing number of directives
  concerning social policy
• Sub-areas of European Social Policy
• Free movement of works and equal treatment in
  national social security systems
• Working conditions
• General equality
• Health and safety at the workplace

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The European Social Fund

• Based on the Treaty of Rome 1957
• Labour market policy and target specific regions
• The first major reform in 1971
• Co-funding scheme
• Certain steering effect on national policies
• Steadily increasing share in the EU budget
• 1970 1.1 of the EC budget
• 2002 9.4 of the EU budget

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The Open Method of Coordination

• A new EU-level approach of harmonisation
• The intuitional bases of the OMC
• European guidelines
• National action plans
• National reports using common indicators
• EU-level evaluations
• The practical impacts of the OMC is yet uncertain

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Social Partnership at the EU Level

• A corporatist policy community in the
  post-Maaschricht era
• Two arenas of social policy-making
• Traditional pattern of EU policy-making
• The social dialogue
• Limited success of social partnership
• Parental leave
• Part-time work
• Fixed-term work