New Labour, Economic Reform and the European Social Model

The 2005 British presidency of the European Union, begun in the aftermath of the rejection of the European Constitution by the electorates of France and the Netherlands, brought with it a renewed focus on the challenges of globalization and economic reform. Freed of the Sisiphean task of selling the Constitution to a sceptical British public, the British government moved on to the offensive, arguing the case for liberalising reforms in continental Europe. For them, the apparent demise of the proposed Constitution presented an opportunity to place the spotlight on the slow progress of some key continental European countries carrying out the economic reforms they had agreed to adopt at the Lisbon European Council of 2000. However, the ‘no’ votes in France and the Netherlands seemed at least in part – a clear signal that changes to existing socioeconomic arrangements would be vociferously contested. These contrasting interpretations of the Constitution’s fate seem to suggest a fundamental disagreement over Europe’s direction. The constitutional project was sandwiched between British scepticism towards further integration, and suspicions in some continental member states that the Constitution would dismantle a vaguely defined ‘European social model’.