La protección social en la Unión Europea, evolución y perspectivas

Abstract

Progressive segments of society and very specifically trade unions have made social welfare one of the European Union’s distinctive signs of identity. Social welfare, however, is not applied equally to all members of society. Grave social deficits and social exclusion still persist and moreover, the progress made is constantly subjected to attacks, some of which are more rudimentary and others more sophisticated, which call this welfare into question. One of the requisites for consolidating and improving the Welfare State is to add a European dimension to the mobilisations and negotiations to improve social policies. This can be done by defending that these policies clearly stand at the core of the development of the European Union. From this perspective, it is important for majority of the seats in the European Parliament to be held by progressives while the European Trade Union Confederation should energetically defend the Community Social Welfare policies.