Building States without Society: European Union Enlargement and the Transfer of EU Social Policy to Poland and Hungary

Building States without Society: European Union Enlargement and the Transfer of EU Social Policy to Poland and Hungary , Beate Sissenich, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007, pp. xiv, 237. Social policy has been a crucial and at times controversial area for the European Union, yet it remains limited in scope and clout. EU social policy is not a major annoyance of a kind to alarm employers nor does it present labour unions with tantalizing opportunities for social change. It does not deal with redistribution politics and does not establish an EU-level welfare state. Important topics are left out. In the negotiations before the 2004 enlargement, the issues of mobility and the freedom of movement of persons—politically charged issues in view of the fears on the part of some older members of a significant influx of workers from new lower-wage EU states—were handled in a separate negotiating chapter.