Internationale Politikanalyse Europäische Politik, August 2006 Marius Busemeyer, Christian Kellermann, Alexander Petring, Andrej Stuchlik* Political Positions on the European Economic and Social Model – a Map of Interests Introduction Over the past decades, closer European integration has led to a multitude of supranational structures and or­ganisations. With the enlargement rounds what has also increased is the extent of heterogeneity of mem­bers of the Union. The national economies of the twenty-five member states are divergent not solely in terms of performance and size, but also differ signifi­cantly in terms of economic constitution or distribution of income. * This is how political parties are faced with increasing demands for producing a Europe-wide con­sensus on policy measures. The following study con­centrates on the positions taken by political parties, trade unions and employers' organisations on the European economic and social model(EESM). The basis of this article is a Europe-wide survey on the main pol­icy fields of the EESM. In the survey, a total of fifty questions were put to more than one hundred leading personalities from political parties, trade unions, minis­tries, parliaments and employers' organisations. 1 The questions were grouped according to three thematic contexts: a) economic policy, b) social policy and c) competition(amongst the member states). The survey was conducted in a total of seventeen European coun­tries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ire­land, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Slo­vak Republic, * M. Busemeyer: University of Heidelberg C. Kellermann: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn E-Mail: christian.kellermann@fes.de A. Petring: Social Science Research Center Berlin(WZB) A. Stuchlik: Andrássy University, Budapest 1 This study is based on a research project conducted by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The questionnaire, findings relating to countries and the data records are available on this web­page of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: http://www.fes.de/ internationalepolitik. Concerning the development of questi­ons and economic discussion of the European economic and social model, see Petring/Kellermann 2005. Spain and Sweden. Two key questions formed the primary focus of the research project and of this arti­cle: 1) In which areas is consensus/divergence to be found in the positions of the parties and or­ganisations? 2) How can these common standpoints and dif­ferences be explained? Based on a brief narrowing down of the broad concept of a European economic and social model, what fol­lows is the explanation of analytical assumptions of the study. Subsequently a description and analysis are pro­vided of the positions taken by the respondent parties and organisations concerning the evaluation of the current economic and social model and concrete pro­posals for reform. The conclusions are presented in a brief summary. The European economic and social model There is controversy as to whether it is possible to speak of just çåÉ European economic and social mo­del. As a rule, this debate is based on two different benchmarks: advocates of the existence of one model emphasize a socio-political consensus that extends ac­ross the whole of society. This is said to prevail in all European countries, and sets the EU apart from the USA. What sceptics see in the numerous nation-state variants of the social models is counter evidence for the existence of a common model. Experience shows that there is particular opposition to the delegating of welfare-state responsibilities. This is reflected in the comparatively underdeveloped socio-political responsi­bilities of the Union. Nevertheless, these have been broadened incrementally since the inclusion of the