EU Governance and Social Policy: Larger and Larger Uncertainties Looming

Jean-Claude Barbier (1) , Fabrice Colomb (2)

1 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
2 CPN - Centre Pierre Naville

The combined influence of EU governance and national politics is difficult to disentangle in order to ascribe the EU level ist specific impact. Nevertheless a study of the influences of the various governance mechanisms (instruments) at the EU level (macroeconomic governance, hard law, soft law, social dialogue) shows that since the early 2000s, and especially in times of the Barroso Commission, social policy has been gradually marginalized from the agenda. With the crisis, this leads to a triple form of uncertainty, legal, economic and political. The impact assessed is especially visible for labour law, social services of general economic interest, and the coordination of social policy.

Mots clés: EU governance; social policy; social services of general interest; social dialogue

Domaines: Sociologie

Jean-Claude Barbier, Fabrice Colomb. EU Governance and Social Policy: Larger and Larger Uncertainties Looming. 2012. ⟨halshs-00664316⟩