ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that despite all initiatives to create an 'organized social space' and to improve European competencies in the areas of social policy and industrial relations regulation European integration primarily has a deregulatory impact. This also applies to the so-called Lisbon strategy and the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC), which calls for a modernization of national social security systems to reconcile the competing imperatives of economic competitiveness and social cohesion. The chapter outlines the basic features of the European political economy of socio-economic restructuring and the characteristics of the much discussed Lisbon strategy. It explores the implications of European initiatives for national labour markets and social policy regimes and deals explicitly with the impasses and contradictions of the general European approach to overcome the crisis of national welfare regimes. Presumably, the problems will even become more acute, as the EU and its member states are confronted with the socio-economic and budgetary consequences of the severe global financial crisis.
