In
recent debates on the reform of the Economic and monetary union, the idea of
adding a “social dimen­sion” to the four often mentioned “unions” (economic, fiscal,
banking and political) has gained force.

The European Commission
will issue a communication on this issue in early October and decisions on how
this “social dimension” will look like will be taken at the European Councils
of October and December 2013.

This Policy Paper sets out to shed some light on how a social dimension
for the common currency area could and should look like today.

After
having analyzed why a social dimension is necessary for the EMU, Sofia
Fernandes and Kristina Maslauskaite therefore wonder about the nature of this
social dimension. They identify a set of initiatives aiming at (i) reinforcing the smooth functioning of the EMU; (ii) avoiding the negative
consequences of the common currency on national welfare states and (iii)
improving EMU’s social governance.