Social policies in European Union before 1974

It was aimed to establish an economic union rather than a social onein European Economic Union targeting to form a common market in whichthe capital, the people, the services and the goods are exchanged freely withEuropean Coal and Steel Union which was founded with Treaty of Paris in1951 to administrate the coal and steel resources and making a marketcomprising these sectors and European Nuclear Energy Union which wasfounded with Treaty of Rome in 1957.The concepts of social policy, in most general terms, express thepractice and decisions taken for the sake of whole nation for the social well-being of nations. While, social aspect of European Union is debated since theestablishment of the union, there are views defending the necessity of asocial policy to be exercised among the member nations, as well as thoseabout that the union does not need a social policy. While social acts areappended in the Union?s Founding Treaty under these discussions in view ofthe fact that different social policies will lead unequal competition, EuropeanUnion has gained functionality with an unique quality above nations withpartial hand-over of governing rights of member nations.Social policy of the union before 1974 has been applied to the Union?sFounding Treaty and secondary-order legal sources with the licence of legalarrangement and enforcement given by the ?over-nations? status of theunion. In this period, due to the fact that the main objective of the union wasto form the common market, social policy within this objective includes legalarrangements to enable workers to roam freely. In this respect, especially,social security rights they benefit in their homeland. On the other hand,reciprocal acknowledgement of professional qualifications, certifications andother documents was adopted between member nations.While arrangement about employment were ignored due to the factthat unemployment was not a serious problem before 1974, it was mostlyfocused on the heath and security standards in sectors of steel, coal andnuclear energy. Although male and female equality was handled in terms ofpayment in Treaty of Rome, it was interpreted so as to comprise everyequality rights. European Social Funds have been used mostly for vocationaltraining in this period.In Paris Summit during 19-20 October 1972, it was first emphasizedthat social unification of the union is as important as economic one, and itwas decided that a social act program should be prepared before 1 January1974. Social Act Program which was prepared after this decision hascontributed to the development of social policy of the union and afterwardsEuropean Union social policy has come to its current status and showed thatsocial unification is as important as economic unification through theagreements modifying the Founding Treaty of Rome as well as secondarylegal arrangements. Within these developments, the period of 1974 gainedimportance as a period for enabling the emergence of social policy inEuropean Union as well as providing a basis for it.