The Case for a European Social Union. From Muddling through to a Sense of Common Purpose

The European Union is, as a matter of fact, a union of welfare states. In all member states, whatever their social policy tradition or level of development, there is majority support for core ambitions of a modern welfare state: promoting general prosperity, sustaining social cohesion, protecting vulnerable individuals and supporting education. However different European welfare states are, their national tax and benefit systems have created, to varying degrees and with varying success, a capacity for social and economic stabilization in periods of economic stress; these automatic stabilizers are intrinsically linked with the protection of vulnerable individuals.