A European Social Union : 10 Tough Nuts to Crack

In this report, Frank Vandenbroucke and Bart Vanhercke argue that Europe is in need of a "Social Union": one that would support national welfare states on a systemic level in some of their key functions (such as macroeconomic stabilisation) and guide the substantive development of national welfare states – via general social standards and objectives, leaving ways and means of social policy to Member States – on the basis of an operational definition of the European social model. In other words, European countries would cooperate in a union with an explicit social purpose – hence, the expression ‘European Social Union'