With the growing challenges of economic globalization and national welfare state retrenchment, the development and future of EU social policy has become increasingly important. This exciting new textbook provides a comprehensive, detailed and up-to-date overview of this contested area and examines whether EU social policy is strengthening or weakening European social policy regimes. The book begins with a general outline of the postwar development of EU social policy and its evolving relationship to the theory and practice of European integration. Then it provides a detailed and theoretically engaged description of the main areas of EU social policy including: labour, gender, anti-poverty, anti-discrimination, elderly, disability, youth, and public health policy. There is also a chapter exploring the social policy role of the structural funds, particularly the European Social Fund. The book concludes by arguing against both sides of the strengthening/weakening debate, calling for a more subtle analysis of the effects of EU social policy on national social policy regimes. This book is the most up-to-date and comprehensive available and offers the reader a detailed and accessible exploration of the area. It will be essential reading for anyone studying the EU or national social policy, as well as for practitioners in the field.

Does the European Union really matter to British policy? For some it is a leading light, for others an irrelevancy. Given the uneven and evolving nature of EU policy, how can we evaluate its overall impact? This book is the first to combine a clear and detailed introduction to the new science of complexity and its application to social policy, Europeanisation, globalisation and the EU-UK relationship. It includes a detailed review of four key policy areas: employment, labour, gender and monetary relations. "Integrating UK and European Social Policy" provides groundbreaking reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of politics, history, international relations, economics, social policy and applied social science. It is also useful for academics with an interest in European social policy, and policy makers and shapers, including government and non-government organisations.

This Handbook will comprise of 29 original pieces from key contributors to the field of European social policy. It is intended to capture the ‘state of the art’ in European social policy and to generate and contribute to debates on the the future of European social policy in the 21st Century. It will be a comprehensive and authoritative resource for research and teaching covering themes and policy areas including social exclusion, pensions, education, children and family, as well as mobility and migration, multiculturalism, and climate change.

Büchs analyses the goals and instruments of the Open Method of Coordination, discusses approaches which theorize its functioning, examines its policy content and develops a framework for its evaluation. Through the examination of a case study the author demonstrates how policy actors apply the OMC in employment in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Designed for use by undergraduates on social policy, social work and sociology courses and by students on vocational training courses (including postgraduate), this textbook covers all the main topics of social policy.

Social policy has become an increasingly prominent component of the European Union's policy-making responsibilities. Today, for example, a highly developed body of law regulates equal treatment in social security and co-ordinates national security schemes; national health services have opened up to patients and service providers from other states; and rules govern the translation of educational and vocational certificates across member states. This state of affairs is all the more remarkable given the relatively limited resources at the EU's disposal and the initial intentions of its founders. During negotiations for the Treaty of Rome in the 1950s, social policy was viewed as the exclusive provenance of the member states. There were to be provisions to facilitate labour mobility within the common market, but until the 1970s social policy making at the EU-level was modest. However, plans for the internal market moved social policy on the EU's decision-making agenda. The Social Chapter was adopted in 1989, and the Single European Act expanded EU competencies in social policy. The Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice all expanded competencies further, so that by the time the heads of government met in Lisbon in 2007 to sign the EU's latest treaty, the extent of supranational control over important aspects of social policy making was quite impressive. This important book provides a full account of the evolution of social policy in the EU and of its current reach. It examines the reasons for the increased role of the EU in the area, in spite of formidable obstacles, and details its effects in member states, where social provision is often the biggest item in government budgets and a crucial issue in national elections. Drawing on research done on welfare states around the world and on European integration, this book provides a distinctive and sophisticated account of social policy in Europe, showing how it must now be understood in the context of multi-level governance in which EU institutions play a pivotal role.

Drawing on a range of disciplinary, conceptual and theoretical approaches, this book analyses the complex interconnections between social policy formation and implementation in the European Union before and during the UK’s membership. It explores the issues, debates and policy challenges facing the EU at different stages in its development, and shows how the UK promoted and hampered social integration. With the UK’s decision to leave the EU as one of the greatest challenges in the EU’s history, this book seeks to understand the role played by social policy in the referendum campaign and withdrawal negotiations, and considers what Brexit means for social policy development both in the UK and across the EU.

The East Asia crisis of 1997-98 highlighted the need for new models for social policy. A joint project between European and Asian governments brought together over a two year period the experience of social policy experts from Europe and Asia. This project was financed by the ASEM (Asia Europe Meeting). This document looks at a wide range of issues - social security reform, links between macroeconomics and social policy, labour market policies, gender relations and cross-border migration. Inspired by European experience in similar fields and focusing on ideas and knowledge exchange, the project worked to develop papers and seminars, to produce this book.

Taking account of the debates about adapting the Union's institutional structures to accommodate different welfare arrangements and the need for more open forms of European governance, the third edition of this well received book offers a compact, clear and authoritative account of 50 years of social policy formation and implementation across the EU.

The general objective of this book is to contribute to the debate on, as well as to the development and implementation of, EU social policies and social policies in EU countries, particularly the growing emphasis in these policies on 'activation' and 'participation' rather than income provision.