European Social Policy. Idea and Reality

Looking back from the perspective of the over 40-year history of European integration, the achievement of common social policy is visible first of all in these fields which supported economic integration and the rising of a uniform market. Until today the question remains open what should be the policy of the Union in face of the large differentiation of social rights and institutional solutions in the systems of social security of the member countries. In this scope there is a dissonance between the general declarations of the Union and practice resulting from the obligatory principle of unanimity in accepting resolutions concerning the questions of social security and the principle of subsidiarity in relations between the Union and member countries. For this reason, among others, the European Social Agenda, adopted in Nice in the year 2000, has essential importance. In accordance with its provisions the priority of the social policy of the Union in the first decade of the XXI century will be co-operation in the solving of common problems (unemployment, poverty and social exclusion, safety of pension systems) and modernisation of the European social model. The accepted goals and an open method of co-ordination as a method of their realisation manifests the greater determination of the Union in the scope of strengthening its social dimension and adaptation of the European social model to contemporary challenges.