About: social model

Managing European social policymaking

"Finding the right mixture of European and national decision-making is key to a fair and efficient social policy for the twenty-first century," write Andrej Stuchlík and Christian Kellermann, researchers at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a German think tank, in a January paper.

Reflecting on EU solidarity

The European Union has had a social agenda since the early days of the European Economic Community (EEC), argues Joachim Fritz-Vannahme, director of European projects at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, in a November paper.

Long Live the European Social Model

In a commentary for the Wall Street Journal, Jack Lang, the former French education, research and culture minister and one of the best-known socialist politicians in his country, argues it was not a good idea in the first place to make social Europe the theme of the Hampton Court summit, because this model was not what was in question.

Make or Break Summit? – Britain’s persistent EU delusions

"Copy me, I'm the best and you're wrong" - that is the UK government's attitude towards its guests at the Hampton Court Social Council, on 27 October 2005, says Kirsty Hughes in this commentary for EURACTIV. The 24 other EU countries are rather unlikely to follow such a charming invitation. New Labour's economic policy still places the Blair government to the right of European Christian Democrats and in the camp of right-wing populists like Italy's Berlusconi or Spain's Aznar. 

The future of social policy in an enlarged EU

At the end of 2002, a high-level panel of social and labour experts was asked to find a way forward for social policy in an enlarging European Union. Their report demonstrates how the European social model can maintain its central place in a functioning market economy.