Abstract
Europeanization is an elusive concept because of the variety of meanings it refers to. Scholars such as Featherstone (2003, 6-12) often distinguish several usages according to various outcomes of European change, for instance the emergence of new forms of governance or the process of national adaptation in terms of polity and policies. But if they agree more or less on the faces of Europeanization, its definition remains to large extent a matter of contention and depends on the aspect of Europe the scholars seek to emphasize and analyze.
Since the beginning of the 50's, Europe can be seen as an historical process of institution building and policy making that has continuously produced new patterns of interactions between the different actors and structures. As pointed out in the literature (Harmsen 2000; Risse, Cowles and Caporasso 2001; Featherstone 2003; Radaelli 2003) EU membership and its obligations may result in institutional and policy domestic adaptations in specific areas, that is to say an Europeanization process. Here the study wants to focus on the question of a European Social Model developed by Wincott (2003). Whereas Europe used to focus mainly on economic arrangements, policies and regulation frames, the past twenty years have increasingly seen the emergence of social expectations. In reaction to the neo-liberalism wave at the beginning of the 80's that shaped, if not influenced, national policies and European construction, the idea of reinforcing the social dimension of Europe started to gain a ready audience, witness the stand of J.Delors, president of the EU commission from 1985 to 1995 (Wincott 2003, 287). Hence the guiding question will be: How does the idea of a European Social Model have influenced the institutions and policies of the State members? This implies to explore, as an Europeanization process, the emergence of a European "pattern of economic and social regulation" (Wincott 2003, 281) and the direction of change the latter is following over time.
