Unemployment insurance, in European countries, is a part of the social security system which is a compulsory insurance. Social security remains each country's competence, but economical policies, which are included in treaties (Maastricht, 1992 and Amsterdam, 1997) signed between European countries, have a direct impact on welfare systems.
1) The European union operates in the following manner: the legislative and executive power belongs to the councils of ministers; the European commission has an executive and a power of control by means of directives: especially concerning the national plan for employment. The European Parliament, which is elected, has a limited legislative power (for example it has no power about social and labour legislation).

2) The changes in social security systems: during the 80's, the countries, to limit public deficit, began to reduce social security spending. After (1997) employment policies appeared on the agenda of the summit meetings (prime Ministers and head of states) : each country must present a national plan for employment for approval. A new economic goal prevails: the necessity to stimulate ? passive ? spending, which means:
• Reduce tax pression on labour (which means reducing employer's contribution to social security)
• Adopt the principle of involving unemployed people in labour market ? active measures ? : that is requirements demanded to serve benefits,
• Create subsidized employments (in both public and private sectors) which are mostly part time jobs, with low wages.
The purpose of the Lisbon summit (2000) was to increase employment rate, by lowering unemployment benefit in order to push jobseekers to find any kind of work ; The Barcelona summit pushed forward the objective of increasing the working life by 5 years.
The European countries adopted different measures to apply the English formula (Blair) : M ake the W ork P a y : tax credit for low wages, or accumulation of low wage and benefit allowance, or better wages for work. The third policy seems to give the best results as to the decrease of unemployment rates.
The different policies applied in Europe constituted at least three different ? models ? of employment policies: European southern countries ( Italy , Greece , Spain , Portugal ) generally, have, a higher level of unemployment rates than the northern countries, and the scope of the social security coverage and compulsory measures for the jobless are fewer than in other parts of Europe .
Northern countries (Scandinavian) have better coverage for unemployed people and less compelling measures than continental countries ( Deutschland , France , Belgium ) ; United kingdom has a specific system of unemployed insurance for unemployed with the strongest compelling measures.

3) Some questions to be discussed
a- income for unemployed: changes in unemployment insurance have lowered the coverage rate and many of the jobless and laid off workers have joined those who live with mean-tested benefits. The population living with low wages and low benefits has increased and about 17% of the European population is living under the poverty line. But we must note that 23% of the European population escapes this situation because of welfare transfers, like housing benefits, child benefit, and health care.
b- re-employment (or ? back to work ?) :The active policies do not seem to have positive results in terms of the rate of unemployment : in countries where unemployed benefits are high unemployed persons have a better career outline than in others. The rate of re-employment is better when training is of high quality and job offers have normal wages, which means that social security is a factor of re-employment. Public employment agencies have a central function in vocational guidance and the choice of quality professional training, and also for finding suitable jobs for job-seekers.
c- the training : training courses for unemployed have been reduced in duration – generally 3 months which is not enough to acquire new skills ; this problem is linked to re-employment , to the notion of ? decent job ? and of course to the income

Social security, by becoming an ? instrument ? for the implement of macro-economic policies and the re-organisation of labour market has encouraged the creation of poor jobs – which, in some countries, when they terminate, do not entitle job-seeker to an unemployment allowance. Free-lance and independent workers' status should be included within the framework agreement of unemployment insurance. (examples of those cases in Germany for independent workers and France with contract workers for workers in the entertainment industry without steady employment).