Social Europe In Action: The Evolution of EU Policies and Resources

Abstract : The question common to the various chapters of this book is whether and how the European Union (EU) has contributed to employment-friendly welfare reforms. In order to investigate the mechanisms which cause the various EU initiatives to matter at the national level, we have chosen to concentrate on the national ‘usages of Europe’ (see Graziano, Jacquot and Palier, introduction to this volume; and for a general presentation of this analytical approach see Woll and Jacquot, 2010). From this perspective, analysing the way EU resources are used at the national level first requires analysing what kind of resources the EU can provide national actors with.