Treaty of Rome and social policies

Résumé du document

On 25 March, 1957, six founders - France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg - signed the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), a common market with free movement of goods, capital, labor and services. In this paper, we will try to understand the position of France which insisted on adding some social policies, as the EC treaty was very economical in nature. This French motivation was closely linked to its political and social context as well as economic and competitiveness issues.

During the years following the end of the Second World War, majority of the French population considered economic liberalism had done more harm than good to be the need of the hour keeping in mind the 1929 crisis. For them, liberalism was not efficient enough to restore the ruined economy. It seemed that the intervention of the State was indispensable to reconstruct and to raise the production in France.

A new social organization went up: in February 1945, de Gaulle instituted the works council for companies with more than 50 employees. In January 1946, civil servants benefited from a new measure that set up recruitment and compensation rules. Also, from October 1945 until January1948, a certain number of decisions and redrafts concerning the creation of Social security, family allowance, retirement and insurance institutions was created.