The Social Dimension of the European Union

Regional integration processes can learn from the particularities of the European Union's social dimension, despite its apparent inconsistencies and sui generis form of development. The article provides a comprehensive retrospective overview of developments, and pays particular attention to the political and technical procedures adopted for progressing social policy. It argues that a regional integration process in a wide range of social fields has developed in the EU despite facing dissent and dilemmas for over 50 years. It claims that the EU now enjoys a working and workable apparatus of policies, practices and laws in a broad social dimension, that are not only far more extensive than first envisaged in the Treaty of Rome, but are also destined to expand further. In particular, the article moves beyond previous accounts in arguing that procedural complexity has been an intrinsic and creative part of the social dimension to European integration

The Alternative Vote is not the answer to the problems of our current electoral system: it is confusing, does not increase proportionality and promotes centrist politics

Our current First Past the Post voting system is inadequate for our current needs – it is unrepresentative and leads to the dominance of a small number of parties. However, Monica Threlfall writes that we should not rush to adopt the Alternative Vote system. It is complicated and confusing, does not promote competition between parties (and thus reinforces centrist politics) and does not increase proportionality. In general, it offers little real change

"Is there a feminist perspective on the European employment strategy and guidelines?"

[T]his paper proposes that the ongoing critique of the EU can be taken forward and evolve in complexity by introducing further differentiations. Two new interlinked differentiations can be made, firstly, between EU institutions, such as Commission and Council, and between legislation and strategy. While the EU's gendered achievements in the field of employment legislation expanding the legal acquis have been recognized, the issue of gender in wider socio-economic strategies governed by intergovernmental bargains, such as the case of the European Employment Strategy, has as yet received little attention from researchers working from within a feminist perspective-apart from the scholars on gender and the labor market who have been involved with the Commission, such as the EGGE team and its EU country specialists, coordinated by UMIST. Is it safe to assume the supranational and the intergovernmental levels need a different toolkit of analysis? Perhaps by turning the spotlight on an intergovernmental bargain such as the European Employment Strategy, we can see how far the recognized "emancipatory value" of the EU project remains confined to the sphere of rights and regulation and fails to filter down to wider practical policymaking field, despite the best efforts of the Commission in adopting gender mainstreaming techniques

XXX1DCA1 : Gendered policies in Europe : Reconciling employment and family life

Gendered Policies in Europe provides important and timely insights into the changing policy process in the area of equal opportunities. The authors track the contributions of member states and pressure groups to EU policy formation, and analyse the impact of European legislation on gender issues in law and practice in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain and Sweden. By combining detailed analysis of the EU policy-making framework with national case-studies, the book illustrates how different policy styles and institutional settings have shaped equality policy and influenced implementation