Introduction

The European Social Model (ESM) is a notion that constitutes a valuable analytical tool for the academic world as well as being a term capable of mobilising political decision-makers, especially when it comes to envisaging, constructing and implementing a common social and employment policy agenda at the European level, or alternatively when some of the very foundations of the ESM come under threat and are in need of reform. It is a heuristic tool but also, increasingly, a political referent used to legitimise reforms.

Despite the many shortcomings of such a ‘catch-all’ concept, it has proved useful from an academic point of view for the following reasons:

• • Be it at the national or European level, the model enables us to reflect cogently on the workings of the entire set of economic and social institutions and the policy crossovers between economic governance, industrial relations, social protection and employment.

• • It enables us furthermore to reflect on change and the variety of forms it takes at the national level: the ESM has grown out of a particular historical context, which is bound to evolve in step with transformations in the international and European economy, sociological, demographic and political changes in our societies and the balance of power between capital and labour.

• • Generally speaking, this all-encompassing term lends itself to multidisciplinary approaches and simultaneously embraces law, economics, political science and institutional history.

• • It also enables researchers and practitioners to pool their ideas and facilitates transfers of knowledge between these two worlds.

In this chapter the author examines the European dimension of the ESM. Can it be said that the building of Social Europe has put in place a coherent ESM? The answer is obviously no, in that employment, social protection and industrial relations policies are still essentially matters of national responsibility. Given that there are several very different social models within the European Union (EU), what is the role and function of European Community social policy amidst all this diversity? How has European social policy been put in place over the years? Clearly, the content of Social Europe has to a large extent been fashioned by the political vicissitudes and attitudes that have presided over its development and, of course, by the history of European economic integration.