Regulating national welfare policies within the EU Social Inclusion Strategy: The balance between hard and soft law paradigms

This Paper focuses on the regulatory paradigms that influence the development of national welfare schemes (cash benefits, care and integration services for persons at high risk of poverty and social exclusion) within the EU Social Inclusion Strategy, developed in line with the European Employment Strategy as a means to broaden EU competencies established by primary community law. These paradigms set the legal and operational trajectories of a hybrid European social welfare discourse, strongly influenced by the subsidiarity principle / model of social protection within the EU. The Paper will deal with the institutional framework of the social welfare discourse at the EU level, discussing the performance of existing instruments in both primary and secondary European law (i.e. Treaties, Council binding legislation and Commission Communications) as well as new non-binding governance methods developed under the Lisbon process (i.e. Open Method of Coordination). It will also address issues about the ‘judicial empowerment’ of the discourse, presenting scenarios on the future development of hard and soft law paradigms within the revised EU Social Protection and Social Inclusion Agenda (i.e. Equal treatment in access to welfare, Activation of vulnerable people, Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, Programme for Employment and Social Innovation, Social Economy etc) during the economic crisis.