How did the Community interact with states and regions outside Europe, and what global role did it play? This chapter contends that the European Community was only able to develop a moderately clear profile in specific issues and in relation to particular non-European regions – and at the same time it was remarkable that it even managed to accomplish that. There were several starting points, with relations with the United States and with the member states’ (ex-)colonies turning out to be especially influential. In these processes the European Commission played a central role, always seeking new opportunities to wield influence. While it is true that the member states’ governments insisted on their sovereignty, at the same time they supported the Community’s basic premise of relating to third states as a collective political order. This was important not only externally but also internally. Together with the Commission’s proactive role, these links to the internal dynamics within the Community created a momentum that the member states were not always able to control. Ultimately it transpired that the tension between the postulated primacy of the member states and the inherent logic of the integration process was constitutive for the EC’s global possibilities and perspectives.

In 2017, the British street artist Banksy painted a mural of a man on a ladder chiselling one of the stars out of the EU flag. The painting is on a building in Dover, which has been one of Britain’s most important connections to mainland Europe since ancient times. Today its port handles almost 20 per cent of Britain’s trade. While we may not know who ‘Banksy’ really is, there can be no doubt that his work is a commentary on the British decision to leave the European Union, or Brexit.

The book’s Epilogue briefly sketches developments since the Maastricht Treaty. Moreover, it draws the lessons from the history of European integration since the 1950s. Among other things it argues that for a long time there was not just one Project Europe, but many – most of them conceived as alternatives to nationalistic forms of politics. It was by no means inevitable that the European Community would come to be the dominant forum of cooperation and integration in Cold War Western Europe. Not until the 1960s were there growing signs that the EC was on the way to becoming a different class of actor than, for example, the OECD. And even in the early 1980s its status was anything but certain. Rather than proceeding as the implementation of a masterplan, today’s EU appeared in fits and starts. Above the level of detail it set out to make the future more predictable. It was this hope that shines through all the treaties and directives, summits and compromises, plans and proposals. While many saw precisely that as a value in its own right, the idea of Project Europe as an attempt to contain the future is less certain again today.

Public policies are important in promoting gender equality. Family policies, parental leave and formal childcare provisions may help support the female labour supply, while gender quotas may be useful in reducing the glass ceiling. Other provisions in the labour market, such as flexible work arrangements and new forms of job flexibility, have also proved to play a relevant role. This chapter explores how these policies are effective in addressing gender gaps. The chapter concentrates on the relationship between public policy and gender equality, taking into account how difficult it is to identify the effects of the presence of public policy and its impact on gender equality. The chapter starts from family policy and then moves to taxation, to measures in the labour market and finally pensions.

The chapter answers the following questions: Are female politicians making different decisions than male politicians? Is a gender-balanced composition of policymakers influencing the level of public spending and the allocation among different items? Is it reorienting the priorities of politicians towards, for example, social or welfare expenditures? Before analyzing the relationship between the gender of politicians and public policy outcomes, the chapter provides new evidence that male and female political candidates have different preferences which create expectations for a different political agenda. Both macro evidence and micro evidence are presented to identify the impact of women in decision-making positions on public policy. The chapter shows that, as a general result, the allocation of expenditures, rather than the total size, is responsive to the gender of politicians. Moreover, the results differ between developing and developed countries: in developing countries we observe that, as expected, a higher share of women is associated with policies that are more oriented towards social issues, education and women’s needs, whereas in developed countries, the evidence is much less conclusive. Finally, the chapter provides evidence of the impact of women in decision-making positions on a different dimension of public policy, for example, monetary policy.

The relationship between gender and public policy is twofold. On the one hand, public policies are needed to promote gender equality in a context in which the under-representation of women in the economic and political spheres has negative consequences for both equality and efficiency. On the other hand, the constant progress towards a gender-balanced socioeconomic role for women and the process towards women’s empowerment have the political capacity to reorient decisions related to public policies. This may in turn reinforce the link between policies and gender equality.

The previous chapters investigated the nature and development of this twofold relationship. Gender gaps in the economic and political dimensions are still widespread around the world: the evidence presented in Chapter 2 shows that they include low female labour force participation, differences in wages between men and women and lower career prospects for women than for men.