ABSTRACT
Like other economic systems engaged in intensifying patterns of international trade, the EU has increasingly been faced with a number of emergent dilemmas over social policy. Perhaps the most important of these concern the turning of economic growth into employment growth, the balancing of labour market flexibility with job security, and the promotion of social inclusion. A question that has consistently dogged the member states since the inception of the European Community is whether they should adopt some form of collective response, at the level of the Community, and thus develop a common social policy, or whether social policy decisions, including settlements with redistributive consequences, should remain the preserve of the nation state.
