The Maastricht Protocol On Social Policy: Theory and Practice

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Abstract
This article undertakes a first stock-taking of the practice under the Maastricht Social Policy Agreement between the E U member states except the UK. It provides an overview of the rules and experience to date concerning the legal nature, its policy innovations, its corpor atist potentials, and the UK opt-out. The trends can be summarized as normalization, concerning the Agreement's legal character, and as trend continuation, concerning policy competences and majority voting. However, two surprising developments may already be observed: evolving patterns of 'Euro-corpora tism'; and significant effects from and on the UK. This country's opt-out, on the one hand, and the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference, on the other, have so far been considerable factors determining the application of the new powers. Therefore, the policy innovations of the Social Agreement might have much more of an impact in the longer run.

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