Den sociala dimensionen av EU-medborgarskapet

Sammanfattning: Since the introduction of the European citizenship in the Maastricht treaty, social rights have taken a back seat to the economic and political elements. Nevertheless, over the past years social issues have been increasingly included on the agenda following the universal recognition of challenges resulting from further economic integration and demographic change. The extensive research on European social policy so far tend to focus on initiatives put forward by the European Commission, and offers little to explain the multitude of lines of reasoning on how far EU social policy should be taken or why it still remains one of the least developed policy areas. By examining plenary debates in the European Parliament concerning family policy, this Bachelor thesis aims to describe the complex of problems connected to a further development of the social dimension of the European citizenship. The analysis finds that the most imminent problems impeding an expansion of the EU family policy lie not only in the many clashes of opinions between advocates of the various existing welfare models, but also in the conflicts of interests and the different levels of ambition between EU institutions - most notably the Commission and the European Parliament.