Germany as a welfare state in the context of EU social policy

The paper is discussing German social policy with an emphasis on labour market policy. The topic is set into the context of European social policy and European employment policy. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part informs the reader about European employment policy as a whole. It describes its evolution and targets specified by the European union. The second part is devoted to German labour market policy with an accent on the extensive reforms of the last years. Subsequently, the evaluation of these reforms and the current situation on the labour market in Germany are described. The last part is dealing with German labour market policy in the European context: German National reform programme and a comparative analysis with other member states of the EU. At the end of this chapter there are implications for the German labour market policy. The aim of this paper is to answer the question: How efficient is the German labour market policy comparing with other member states of the EU with regard to the target indicators of European employment policy? What direction is it heading and what are the possibilities of making it more efficient