Introduction

Issues such as the struggle against poverty and social exclusion or pensions are now the focus of discussion and practices aimed at stepping up co-operation between the Member States, or even at applying the open method of co-ordination (OMC) to them. In the name of the principle of subsidiarity adopted by the Treaty of Maastricht, they were previously essentially, if not exclusively, treated at the national or infra-national level, and not, other than marginally, at the EU level. Could OMC be the answer for the ideal implementation of subsidiarity?

We will begin by retracing various sources of influence that gave rise to the debates on the vertical and horizontal dimensions of subsidiarity. To this end, section 2 will reflect on subsidiarity's application to the social domain from the early 1990s.

In section 3, we will look at OMC, its development and whether it could be a suitable method for the implementation of subsidiarity. Conversely, we will examine to what degree OMC (as a principle of governance) may undermine the principle of subsidiarity (as a principle guiding the distribution of competencies).

To conclude, we will indicate in section 4 the possible impact of these developments on social dialogue and its actors.

Maastricht and subsidiarity: a brief reminder of the debates of the early 1990s

The set of issues surrounding subsidiarity emerged at the beginning of the 1990s.