The European Pillar of Social Rights: Too Little, Too Late?

Abstract

The paper analyses the opportunity, importance, implications and chances of success of one of the leading initiatives of the European Union, namely the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPRS). The conclusion is that, because of a number of economic, political and social phenomena manifested in the European Union among 2007 – 2018, such an initiative is highly opportune and may even represent the key factor in relaunching the European project. The analysis reveals that, due to the legal and financial limitations of the current format of the EPRS, this initiative may represent too little for achieving substantial and sustainable results. At the same time, due to reduced chances of securing tangible results in a reasonably short time, the initiative may come too late for re-connecting the European citizens to the European Union project and for counter-acting the trends towards national and local approaches that have already manifested in some of the member countries.

Keywords

• European integration
• European pillar of social rights
• relaunch of European Union project
• social market economy
• social cohesion