Labour Market Policies in the European Union

For the last twenty years, European integration has been characterised by an imbalance between economic and social policies. Economic policies, centred on market liberalisation and macroeconomic retrenchment, have increasingly been controlled by the European Union (EU), while social policies are still largely in the hands of the member states. Labour market policies, since they represent the intersection of the economic and social spheres, are of particular interest. A survey of the EU’s labour market policies shows that they are a contested domain, where rival views of the European project come into conflict. These policies take two main forms: a programme of legislation, originally intended to promote an upward convergence in standards, is today threatened with dilution; while a more recent initiative, the European Employment Strategy, an exercise in the “open” coordination of national policies, has, from the start, been heavily influenced by US views of labour “flexibility”. However, both forms of policy could make important contributions to the well-being of European workers, on condition of a basic change in EU strategy. The recent failure of the European Constitution may mean that this basic change is becoming necessary to the survival of the integration project.