The Idea of a European Social Union: A Normative Introduction

We need a clear-cut concept with regard to the social dimension of the EU: not a European Welfare State, but a European Social Union. Why is it necessary? First, monetary integration requires supranational stabilization instruments: stabilization implies risk-sharing and a 'responsibility cut'. Moreover, there is a limit to the diversity of social models that can be accommodated in a monetary union. Hence, monetary integration forces upon its members a basic consensus on the social order it has to serve. The second reason why such a consensus is imperative refers to the need to reconcile free movement and domestic social cohesion. The EU must become a holding environment that allows Member States to be flourishing welfare states. What is exactly the agenda of a European Social Union? The agenda depends on normative choices. These choices have to reconnect with the point and purpose of the European project as it originally emerged, but not in an uncritical way. On a foundational level, reciprocity within and between member states is a key normative idea. On a practical level, we must reconsider the original division of labour envisaged by the European founding fathers, in which economic policy would be supranational and social policy national.