Europe’s Social Policy as a Difficult Negotiation Process: Actors and Options with Particular Reference to Working Time Policy STEPHAN KLECHA T he political Left once associated the project of European unification with an almost euphoric vision. In the Heidelberg Program of 1925 the spd laid down its federalist and supranational idea of a United States of Europe. In the 1950s social democracy and the trade unions allied with it were presented with the formation of the conservative project for Europe and the coming into being of the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Atomic Energy Community, and the European Economic Community. The focal point was the attempt to bind the Western Euro­pean economies to one another in such a way that, on the one hand, they would assert themselves as a stronger economic area than Eastern Europe, and on the other hand, by means of the close relationship between na­tional economies, render military conflict between the member states impossible(Audiso/Chiara 1999: 63f). The conservative project therefore incorporated the ideas of the social democratic project and restricted their implementation to the economic project, which was backed by all the participating states. The European Union eventually grew out of the three Communities and the number of members has increased from six to 27. In the 50 years since the signing of the Treaty of Rome the Union has both enlarged and consolidated itself. As a result of this process over the years the European Union has become more complex and multilayered. At the beginning of the decade this resulted in a debate on a Constitutional Treaty for Europe. The Constitutional Convention established for that purpose worked out a draft that as a matter of priority was intended to reform the eu institu­tions. In ballots on the Treaty in 2005, however, a majority in France and the Netherlands voted against it, which not only delayed ratification of the Constitution – if it did not put an end to it once and for all – but also in part called the European project into question. The two negative votes confirmed Europe’s legitimation deficit. Investigations and studies point to the fact that the project of European unification is no longer associated 68 Klecha, Europe’s Social Policy ipg 1/2008