Social policy in the European Union : variety and challenges
LT[...] Straipsnyje analizuojamas Europos Sąjungos socialinės politikos formavimo procesas, siekiant atsakyti į klausimą – koks prioritetas buvo skirtas socialinei politikai, lyginant su bendros atviros rinkos formavimu, bendra muitinės sistema, monetarine sąjunga, laisvu žmonių judėjimu? Pateikiama glausta akademinių darbų santrauka apie socialinės politikos modeliavimą, siekiant suprasti, kokio sudėtingumo yra iššūkis sukurti bendrą Europos Sąjungos socialinę politiką. Galiausiai remiantis išvadomis pateikiamos ES socialinės politikos tolesnio vystymosi perspektyvos. Straipsnyje atskleista, kad ES socialinė politika – tai plataus turinio terminas, nes bendroji jungtinė ES socialinė politika vis dar yra pradiniame formavimo etape. ES socialinė politika turi priimti skirtingų socialinių sistemų valstybėse narėse suderinamumo iššūkį. Egzistuoja mažiausiai keturi socialinės politikos modeliai ES valstybėse narėse: konservatyvusis – bismarkiniskontinentinis modelis; socialdemokratinis – Skandinavijos-Šiaurinis; Viduržemio jūros – Pietinis ir Rytų Europos. Net darant išvadą, kad faktas, jog 27 valstybės yra įdiegusios tik keturis socialinės politikos modelius, jau yra pasiekimas, tenka pažymėti, kad keturi modeliai yra labai skirtingi, tad sunku tikėtis rasti tarp jų kompromisą lengvai ir paprastai. Straipsnyje pateikiamos trys ES socialinės politikos vystymosi perspektyvos. [...]. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: ES; ES socialinės politikos standartai; Gerovės valstybe; Moraliniai įsipareigojimai; Socialinė politika; Socialinės politikos modeliai ES; EU; EU standards of social policy; European Union; Moral obligation; Social policy; Social policy in EU; The European Union.; Welfare state; Europos Sąjunga (European Union).
ENEuropean welfare state became well known in all over the world in the second part of the 20th century for its social justice, social solidarity and social protection ideas. European Union integration and globalisation processes contained social affairs almost from the very beginning. At the start up point of the European community, the qualities of social equality, gender equality, better working conditions, and minimum living standard were the most important ones; up to 1970s, the main countries of EU managed to implement them quite well. However, the European welfare systems have been affected negatively by 2 key factors: the EU expansion and worldwide globalisation processes. In the last decade of the 20th century, phenomena like falling birth rates, increasing average life expectancy, population migration processes, growing income inequality and the existing social exclusion started to appear. It became obvious that the need to have a similar social system in all member states is unavoidable. In the context of the subject related to uniting the EU social system, the article is dedicated to analysis of European Union’s social policy. The analysis is divided into several parts: firstly, the process of formation of a common social policy in the EU is investigated, trying to find the answer to the following question: compared to the achievements of the EU in the fields such as a common market and free trade, a common customs system, the monetary union, and free movement of people, what is the status of forming a common social policy of the EU?.Secondly, the paper briefly summarises academic works on social policy modelling, trying to make a conclusion what difficult challenge it is to form a single common social policy of the European Union. Finally, the article provides perspectives of a European Social policy based on investigations performed. The author of the paper discovers that the social policy applied in the EU is a term with wide understanding and context, as such social policy as common and united in the entire EU is still undergoing formation and is currently in the initial stage only. The European social policy faces the challenge of a big variety of social systems in the EU member states. At least four different social policy models are summarised from the analysis: the Conservative – Bismarkian – Continental model, the Social Democratic – Scandinavian – Northern, the Mediterranean – Southern and the East European social policy model. Even if concluding that for a union having 27 member states, it is already a positive result to have only 4 different social policy models, it must be underlined that these four models are much too variegated to expect them to be united and easily developed on similar principles. The article provides three perspective development ways of the EU’s social policy. The first way is to establish common EU standards, directives and regulations for all the EU member states and make it obligatory to adopt them into national regulation. […]. [text from author]
