Providing a UK perspective on the EU's social dimension, this new text opens with a historical overview of EU social and employment policy, which is followed by chapters that focus on specific topics covered by the 'social dimension' of the European Union. These give the reader a detailed understanding of the nature of EU involvement in each area.

Employment is clearly one of those fields of political activity that reveal the manifold problems and difficulties accompanying the process of European integration and supranational institutionalization. In particular the conflict between supranationalists and intergovernmentalists and the degree to which member states show willingness to cooperate with each other become manifest. The Union is struggling for new employment policies that should, on the one hand, be compatible with the European model of the welfare state, and, on the other, adopt to new economic constraints. These debates are accompanied by many conflicts between different interest groups and lobbies. This study succeeded in looking behind closed doors within the EU organizational system. Committee meetings were tape-recorded and analysed, drafts of policy papers were examined for recontextualizations and the impact of interest groups and different economic and ideological concepts on policy-making made explicit. A comparison of decision-making processes in the European Parliament and in small networks of the Commission illustrates the different argumentation patterns and discursive practices that are involved in the formation of new employment policies. The ethnographic research is accompanied by a systemic linguistic and sociological analysis of various institutional genres and political spaces.

The sixteenth edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play has a triple ambition. First, it provides easily accessible information to a wide audience about recent developments in both EU and domestic social policymaking. Second, the volume provides a more analytical reading, embedding the key developments of the year 2014 in the most recent academic discourses. Third, the forward-looking perspective of the book aims to provide stakeholders and policymakers with specific tools that allow them to discern new opportunities to influence policymaking. In this 2015 edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play, the authors tackle the topics of the state of EU politics after the parliamentary elections, the socialisation of the European Semester, methods of political protest, the Juncker investment plan, the EU’s contradictory education investment, the EU’s contested influence on national healthcare reforms, and the neoliberal Trojan Horse of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

This book originates from the research project 'New discourses in labour law' held at the European University Institute. A detailed analysis of part-time work regulation is presented for seven European countries, in order to ascertain how internal domestic choices of the legislatures have merged into the 'Open method of co-ordination'. The impact of European employment policies is considered in parallel with the implementation of the Directive on part-time work, thus providing a complete overview of both soft and hard law mechanisms available to national policy-makers. In this 2004 work, the interaction between law and policy emerges as a dynamic and constantly changing process of exchange between national and supranational actors, through the use of concrete examples of lawmaking. Labour law is put forward as being central in the current evolution of European law, and this centrality is presented as a confirmation of innovation and continuity in regulatory techniques.

This new edition of EU Employment Law provides a complete revision and update of the leading English language text in the field. The coverage in the new edition has been expanded with material on all the latest developments, incorporating the changes made by the Lisbon Treaty; the EU2020 strategy; the Charter of Fundamental Rights; the 'Article 19 Directives'; the Temporary Agency Work Directive; the revisions to the existing including the Directives on Parental Leave and European Works Council; and the new Social Security Regulations 883/2004. It also analyses the ever-expanding body of employment case law, including the momentous decisions in Viking, Laval, Rueffert, and Commission v Luxembourg. The book begins with an examination of the development of EU employment law focusing on the shift from employment law to employment policy. The text then studies rule-making in the field of employment law, considering both the traditional routes to legislation and governance techniques such as the Open Method of Coordination. The final chapters look closely at the substantive area of employment law, examining the free movement of persons, equal treatment, health and safety and working conditions, the restructuring of enterprises, worker participation, and collective action. Throughout, the book addresses the fundamental question as to the purpose of EU employment law: is it primarily economic, or social, or both?