A Strong Europe is a Social Europe

The Working Group on Social Europe made a convincing case for a social Europe to be seen as a constitutional question and not merely as a question of policy content. When the Praesidium issued its draft of the first sixteen articles of the proposed new Constitutional Treaty, it became clear that the Working Group's deliberations were not taken into account in the preparation of this text. The draft Articles missed the opportunity to send a message of inclusion and this concerns the scope of citizenship in Europe. As for the final draft of the Constitutional Treaty, fear and the assertion of national sovereignty will most probably stand in the way of a clear definition of responsibilities for the EU in the area of social policy.