Health and Socio-Political Recommendations for the European Union Governments

Strategies of dissemination and influence in the political decisions

The European Union building process has evolved in such a way that it integrates more and more new policy areas and social policies are among the most relevant ones. Naturally, the aim is the building of a Union not only economic, but also social. This objective confers a particular pertinence to the building of a clear vision about the "acquis communautaire" in this domain.

In fact, if on one side, Europe as a whole constituted an economic and social reference model, given the quality of the social policies, on the other side, it is not less evident that that model:

• does not result from any aprioristic determinism, but from the historically determined social action;

• and for that reason it entails a regional and national specific nature the diversity of which must be considered.

In this way, making evident the mechanisms associated to the diverse modalities historically assumed by the social policies systems in different States is pertinent for the present action, since this illuminates the broad field of options which open nowadays in front of the political decision processes. The more positive aspects and the more negative elements of each of the specific solutions found, once identified, constitute references which determine the necessary policy-mix in relation to the transformation which is taking place in the European Union building process.

Therefore, it becomes decisive for the Phoenix Project (European Thematic Network on Health and Social Welfare Policy) to plan the means through which the most relevant conclusions and recommendations achieved will be able to produce an impact at the decision-making level. Amongst those means, we should consider:

• The participation in the Conferences organised by the project of representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, national politic leaders and representatives of Social Partners;

• The elaboration of a summarizing document which will be distributed among the concerned General Directorates of the Commission and among the European Committees which work in the framework of the Council and have relation with the issues analysed;

• The publication in English of the conclusions and recommendations;

• The creation of a web page in which all citizens may have access to all information related to the project;

• The organization of an international workshop addressed mainly to members of the European Parliament for the discussions of the results of the project;

• The support of the publications in diverse languages containing the documents produced by the teams of the different countries which take part in the project.