The Parliamentary Roots of European Social Policy

The European Parliament (EP) ¿ a powerful actor in today's European Union ¿ was not intended to be more than a consultative assembly at first. Yet this book shows that the EP was much more influential in shaping Community policy in the early years of the integration process than either the founding Treaties or most existing scholarship would allow. It studies the EP¿s institutional evolution through the lens of Community social policy, a policy area with a particularly strong ideational dimension. By promoting a European social dimension, Members of the EP (MEPs) presented the Parliament as the true representative of European citizens by channelling their interests and needs. MEPs thus emphasised the EP¿s role as a provider of democratic legitimacy for Community politics, whilst at the same time trying to convince European citizens that the Communities could have a real and positive impact on their everyday lives.

Offers a major re-interpretation of the EP's strong and proactive role in the creation of a European social dimension

Chapter 1. Introduction: The parliamentarisation of a consultative assembly.- Chapter 2. Conceptualising the European Parliament's gain in power, 1952-1979.- Chapter 3. The institutional evolution of the European Parliament prior to 1979.- Chapter 4. Creating a borderless Europe: The European Parliament's activism in the pursuit of a free movement of persons.- Chapter 5. Emancipating Europe: The European Parliament's involvement in Community equality policy.- Chapter 6. Forging Europe's next generations: The European Parliament's children and youth policy.- Chapter 7. Controlling the purse: How the European Parliament shaped social policy through the European Social Fund.- Chapter 8. Conclusion: The making of a parliament.