ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the evolving policy content and political contours of the European social dimension, understood as the European Union’s (EU) competence in the fields of employment and social policy. The first section focuses on the market-making origins of both European integration and the European social dimension and emphasises the complexities of the policy field. The remaining sections divide the historical development of the policy field into five distinct periods: the Single European Act; the Treaty of Maastricht; Amsterdam Treaty negotiations; the Lisbon Strategy; and Europe 2020. The conclusion reflects of the European social dimension on the eve of the Eurozone crisis. The chapter argues that on the eve of the Eurozone crisis, the political left within the EU’s political space was fractured between a majority centre-left that accommodated neoliberalism and a minority post-war Keynesian social democratic coalition that aims for a European social dimension as a genuine counterweight to the Single European Market.
