For long-time observers of EU social and employment policies it is hardly surprising that the concept of flexicurity has gradually become a central concern in EU reform initiatives. The linguistically awkward combination of flexibility and security into flexicurity captures well the essence of European economic policy making since its inception and it is a good example of the distinct character of the European Social Model: a balancing of economic and social interests that understands social and employment policy as an integral part of economic policy and an important factor of production in the European economy. Flexicurity forms part of efforts to introduce new modes of governance and a greater reliance on soft law instruments in European policy making. It will be argued in the following that we increasingly witness elements of reflexivity in these supranational efforts of policy making. The central thesis of the paper is that in order for soft forms of governance to be effective, European law and policy must become reflexive. In the areas of European social and employment policies, flexicurity and the debate over a European Social Model play an important role in this process.only subscribers can see the full article

Set up in 1997, the European Employment Strategy (EES) aimed to create favourable conditions for achieving higher employment by coordinating national labour policies. The later reformulations of the strategy (in 2003 and 2005) have not changed the underlying orientation, based on measures affecting supply, while too little attention has been given to the interaction between developments on the labour market and the characteristics of the social model, on the one hand, and the macroeconomic impact on the other. This essay has two aims: first, to demonstrate the constant concern on the part of the DG Employment and Social Affairs to combine flexibility and inclusion, in response to the need to preserve the “European social model”, and, secondly, to show how the EES has been an essential condition for the functioning of the single mechanism on which the convergence policies of the member countries of the European Monetary Union has been based, represented by the flexibility of prices and salaries. The limitations of this mechanism are discussed in the last part of the article.only subscribers can see the full article