What social policy developments may be reasonably expected from the Eu
ropean Union? Three possible positions on this question are developed:
a market liberal view; a progressive liberal view; and an institution
alist view. None of these positions is obviously the correct one, and
in each case a mixture of pragmatic and principled criticisms can be d
eveloped. However, it is argued that the progressive liberal position
strikes an ethically acceptable balance of competing considerations.