Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is a leap forward in European integration, removing authority over monetary policy from nation states. This volume examines the ways in which the 'European model of society' has been affected by EMU, showing how national governments have been constrained in their social and industrial policies.

This book analyzes the tensions between monetary integration, culminating in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), and the social and employment policies which define the 'European social model'. Through the policies of the European Central Bank, EMU has led to pressure to make Europe's labor markets as flexible as Americas. In this book, leading scholars ask whether this will erode the European social model or whether domestic political forces committed to national variants of the model can maintain the greater protection it provides against economic insecurity, inequality, and employer power.