The European social model in economic peripheries

This chapter examines the notion that the EU devises and promotes an unofficial development policy through the vehicle of the European Social Model. While this model is frequently referred to in European Commission publications, it has never been concretely defined by the EU. Some commentators define it as including features of the European welfare state and social democracy (Lange, 1992: 230–1). Others suggest that it involves the attempt to create a competitive economic bloc while maintaining the socially cohesive fabric which underpins social order in Europe (Vobruba, 1998: 119). Some literature suggests that this specific combination of competitiveness and cohesion, which flourished in the postwar Fordist period, is no longer compatible in the current global market (Fitoussi, 1997: 155). The Community, however, does not seem to regard this as an insoluble problem, or as an inherent conflict. On the contrary, EU policies and innovations clearly hold that competitiveness and social progress can flourish together. If we look at EU legislation, policies and literature in those areas that affect domestic IR systems, we can clearly see attempts to address these two challenges simultaneously, attempts to juggle with both pressures.