Introduction

Abstract

In the first half of the 1990s, the European Union (EU) found itself in a difficult situation. After some success in the fight against unemployment in the 1980s, most Member States experienced record numbers of people out of work. By 1994, the overall unemployment rate in the EU stood at 11.1 percent — a high level similar to that of the economic and financial crisis starting in 2007 (European Commission, 2000c). Then, as now, the process of European integration was in turmoil. In 1992, the Danish people rejected the Maastricht Treaty and the French people gave their approval only by a narrow margin. The focus on measures to enhance the single market as introduced by the Single European Act of 1986 was seen to have caused a crisis of legitimacy (Tidow, 1998, pp. 17–18). In this context, the ‘social dimension’ of the EU — and particularly the employment field — moved onto the agenda of EU policy-makers.