ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) has created a common internal market aiming at full employment and social development. In the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, it also takes formal authority over the social policies of its member states (ratifi ed Deember 1, 2009). With the European Social Fund (ESF), the EU attempts to co-ordinate national labor market policies for increased effi ciency and employment by handing out project funding through structural funds. By offering incentives through the ESF, the EU manages affairs and groups of people that it sees as connected to marginalization and social problems (European Communities 2007, 3). Both secular welfare organizations and church-related groups such as Evangelical Lutheran parishes in Finland have responded to the social problems defi ned by the EU, acting through projects funded by the ESF.
