The preceding chapters have dealt with the compulsory reforms related to our six EU Directives. However, the domestic impact of EU policies is not necessarily confined to such obligatory adaptations. Member states may use the transposition process to push through voluntary reforms that go beyond the minimum level required by European Directives. On the one hand, this can be a reaction to European soft law and, in fact, recent social policy Directives have included a considerable number of concrete but legally non-binding recommendations. On the other hand, member states might also decide to surpass the level of the EU's minimum standards (say, by creating a parental leave scheme which offers six instead of the required three months of leave).

From an abstract point of view, three different logics of treating the binding and non-binding parts of a Directive can be specified: minimalism, maximalism and alogic of domestic politics (see Table 10.1). The most frequently discussed assumption in the competitiveness-oriented literature is that the reaction of member states to potentially costly EU policies is driven by a logic of minimalism. According to this view, only binding law has the potential to harmonise the different domestic working conditions. In the absence of obligation, no additional costs to the national enterprises or the administration would be accepted in response to European policies.