EU Social Policy in the 1990s explores the background and development of social policy content and process in the European Union since the policy innovations of the 1991 Maastricht Treaty came into force.
The study begins with an analytical overview of schools of thought on European integration which offer useful insights into EU social politics. Building on this framework, the chapters then examine in detail pre-Maastricht social policy and the social partners, the innovations of the Treaty itself, and where EU social policy stands at the end of the 1990s. Case studies of European Works Councils, parental leave, and atypical work, are included to highlight the day-to-day processes at work in social policy formation and the major interest groups and EU institutions involved.
This is an up-to-date and accessible study which finds that the social policy-making environment in the EU has become increasingly corporatist in the 1990s. Gerda Falkner concludes by considering the lessons drawn from the EU''s experience, both for integration theory and for the future of Europe'' social dimension.