Introduction
Social policy has been closely related to European integration since its earliest days. When the European Communities (EC: the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and Euratom) were established in the 1950s, social security, gender equality, employment, and collective bargaining were already on the European agenda. Still, the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, with its Social Policy Protocol and Agreement, significantly expanded the European Union (EU)’s capacity to shape the social and labour rights of Europeans.
The debate on Social Europe, however, did not involve only institutional actors. The organisations representing workers and employers—the social partners—held different visions for the future of Europe but came to agree on the need for their greater representation and influence at the European level. With the support of the Commission and the Member States, they became directly involved in the EC/European Union policy-making and Treaty-making processes, especially following the strong support for social dialogue by the Commission headed by Jacques Delors from the mid-1980s onwards.
This exhibition sheds light on this lesser-known aspect of European integration: how European institutions and social partner organisations discussed the meaning of Social Europe, and, crucially, how they came to draft and operationalize the Social Policy Agreement of the Treaty of Maastricht. Featuring documents, photographs, videos, first-person accounts and oral history interviews, the exhibition shows how European integration affects Europeans’ daily life in terms of work and social inclusion. It also contextualizes current debates on the EU’s social dimension, and reflects on its future perspectives.
The exhibition is based on research carried out for the EU-funded project “ShaPE- The Social Partners as shapers and makers of Social Europe: discovering foundations and futures”, coordinated by the European University Institute in 2024-2025. Archival research conducted in Florence, Amsterdam and Brussels has led to the collection of extensive, newly opened documentation, now accessible through a meta-archive hosted by the Historical Archives of the European Union. This digital exhibition presents a selection of these sources, combined with visual and other materials from relevant databases and collections, to tell a story that enriches our understanding of EC/EU history.
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