European Union social policies: İs there a European community

European Union (EU) has faced a number of challenges which haveconfirmed the importance of social affairs in the policy agenda. The primaryaim of the thesis is to find the answer of the question that whether there is aEuropean community or not. European community concept is examinedaccording to EU social policies. In order to find the answer to this questionthe thesis is divided into five chapters. In the first chapter the mainobjectives of the thesis and the method of the evaluation are discussed.The second chapter provides an insight into the history of the Europeanintegration. Main objectives of the EU and the purposes underlying them areexplained. Furthermore EU common policies, institutions and enlargementprocesses are mentioned. In the third chapter the development history of thedevelopment of EU social policies is analyzed. It is found that there hasbeen insufficient effort in the course of EU social policy making. In thethesis it is argued that this insufficiency forms a major obstacle in the wayof the formulation of European community. Policies of the EU leads to aninsufficient European Union Community concept.In the third chapter the evaluation is supported by a theoreticalbackground. European Welfare State concept, different Welfare StateModels, European Community Model and the democratic deficit problem ofthe EU are elaborated.In the fifth and final chapter the general assessment of the insufficientsocial policies and concluding comments on the essential question of thethesis are given. Additionally, some proposals for overcoming thisdeficiency are tentatively discussed.