Dominic Afscharian, Research Officer, Zentrum für neue Sozialpolitik, Germany

• Contents1 The intriguing promise of a social Europe 2 The many types of social Europe 3 Social Europe’s status quo and hurdles 4 Overcoming hurdles: the interplay of ideas, actors,institutions, and power5 Ideas of social Europe in the European Parliament 6 Ideas of social Europe in the European Commission 7 From idea to policy: the history of European unemploymentinsurance 8 Social Europe in the twenty-first century: grand rhetoric andpragmatic ideas Bibliography

‘This book provides a unique investigation into the ideas underpinning EU social policy making and unveils an inconvenient truth. Behind empty rhetoric about Social Europe, those ideas which gain traction mainly serve to reproduce the status quo. This crucial finding opens avenues for understanding Europeans’ incapacity to envision a common future of greater solidarity.’

Dominic Afscharian, Research Officer, Zentrum für neue Sozialpolitik, Germany

• Contents1 The intriguing promise of a social Europe 2 The many types of social Europe 3 Social Europe’s status quo and hurdles 4 Overcoming hurdles: the interplay of ideas, actors,institutions, and power5 Ideas of social Europe in the European Parliament 6 Ideas of social Europe in the European Commission 7 From idea to policy: the history of European unemploymentinsurance 8 Social Europe in the twenty-first century: grand rhetoric andpragmatic ideas Bibliography

‘This book provides a unique investigation into the ideas underpinning EU social policy making and unveils an inconvenient truth. Behind empty rhetoric about Social Europe, those ideas which gain traction mainly serve to reproduce the status quo. This crucial finding opens avenues for understanding Europeans’ incapacity to envision a common future of greater solidarity.’

Dominic Afscharian, Research Officer, Zentrum für neue Sozialpolitik, Germany

• Contents1 The intriguing promise of a social Europe 2 The many types of social Europe 3 Social Europe’s status quo and hurdles 4 Overcoming hurdles: the interplay of ideas, actors,institutions, and power5 Ideas of social Europe in the European Parliament 6 Ideas of social Europe in the European Commission 7 From idea to policy: the history of European unemploymentinsurance 8 Social Europe in the twenty-first century: grand rhetoric andpragmatic ideas Bibliography

‘This book provides a unique investigation into the ideas underpinning EU social policy making and unveils an inconvenient truth. Behind empty rhetoric about Social Europe, those ideas which gain traction mainly serve to reproduce the status quo. This crucial finding opens avenues for understanding Europeans’ incapacity to envision a common future of greater solidarity.’