The Europeanisation of social protection [antikvár]

Foreword:The European Union's evolving social policy and national models - seeking a new balance Nikolaus G. van der Pas, Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, European Commission, and Kari Vdlimäki, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland This publication cornes out of a conférence organised by the EU Finnish presidency in November 2006.The objective of the conférence was to analyse the future of European social protection systems and of the European social model (ESM) against the challenges of increasing internationalisation, global compétition and an ageing population. Member States remain largely responsible for social policy. EU compétence is limited by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. However, social policy at national level is increasingly influenced by the European Union (EU), in fact more so than was anticipated 10 years ago. As a conséquence of démographie ageing, Member States all face the challenge of modernising their social protection systems. We are accustomed to examining social and health policy issues from the perspective of individual Member States. Social and health policies are closely linked to national socio-political systems. However, the EU has created a new environment for Member States' social and health systems. The establishment of the internal market represents both a challenge and an opportunity for Member States' social and health policies. Furthermore, a number of Community policies, and notably social cohésion, compétition, employment and economic policies, have an impact on social outeomes. How can we reconcile the autonomy of national social systems and the growing influence of Community policies on them? Participants in the conférence generally felt that the social dimension of Europe should be strengthened and identified two possible ways to achieve this. On the one hand, the values of the ESM, such as social cohésion and solidarity, should be better taken into account in compétition, single market and economic policies at Community level. On the other hand, participants righdy emphasised the need to enhance coopération between Member States and with the Commission in order