ABSTRACT
The interest of spill-over effects lies in the capacity to progressively shift European integration from issues of “low politics” to “high politics”. The notion of “spill over” introduced by “neo-fiinctionalist” theories on European integration processes, reckons that functional interdependencies tend gradually to develop between integrated and non-integrated issues. Treaty provisions only represent “potentialities”, merely prescribing possible courses of action, which require to be followed by concrete measures, such as European regulations, decisions, directives etc. The European employment strategy has been influencing the rhythm and content of the European intersectoral social dialogue, which takes place in several different types of meetings. The European Social Fund represents the major component for a community employment policy. However, the major factor of disagreement between member states remains the degree of closeness between employment and economic policy. Another crucial element of the European employment strategy consists of progressively taking employment into account in all community policies.
