ABSTRACT
After the decisive 2:1 referendum result on continuing British membership of the European Community held in 1974 by the Labour government, British trade unions began to reappraise their policy on Europe. Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, a vigorous debate continued each year at the TUC Congress. A serious assessment of the impact of the Single Market on social policy began in 1987 and at the TUC Congress in Bournemouth in 1988 we embraced the European Social Model. Jacques Delors, who gave the keynote address, received a rousing reception. Describing the movement towards the completion of the Single Market by the end of 1992 as ‘irreversible’, he stressed the core elements of the European Social Model: a model based on a skilful balance between society and individual, a model based on social solidarity, protection of the weakest, and on collective bargaining. To all intents and purposes, in 1988 the TUC embraced a European social market economy.
