Introduction

In this chapter I am going to ask you to suspend any disbelief you may feel about plans to develop the European Community. I ask you to do this because I want to explore the implications for social policy if the pace of change in Europe is maintained post-1992.1 quite appreciate that there are good reasons to doubt whether the plans for monetary union will be realised, let alone those for a social dimension to the Community. It is not, however, my intention to try to predict what will happen. The question mark in my title does not concern whether or not a European safety net will come about. I am not trying to make a political forecast.

The aim of the chapter is rather to pose the conditional question – if a social dimension to the Community is to develop alongside the Common Internal Market, then what form is it likely to take? Taking the income protection objectives of the Social Charter seriously, how can they be achieved? What is the role of existing social protection in member countries? How are national programmes likely to be affected by developments post-1992? Should one be thinking of a European safety net? Such thoughts may appear far removed from practical politics, but I believe that the subject is an important one, not least because it tells us something about what we are missing if such a safety net does not come into existence. So I ask you for the duration of the chapter to suspend your disbelief.