The European Union and Social Policy: An Innovative Approach to Regional Integration?

The social dimension of European Union has sometimes mockingly been called the'Cinderella' of integration as a way of signaling its lowly status and the lack of regardin which it is held in the European family. Strangely, the simile is not used to predict a dramatic reversal of fortunes for social policy, still less one involving going to a ball, losing a slipper or marrying a prince.