The Social Dimension of the European Union

Author(s):  
Linda Hantrais
2022 ◽  
pp. 134-154
Author(s):  
Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho

The social role of the farms is, especially, relevant in the rural areas where the socioeconomic problems are, often, more visible. In this perspective, this study aims to investigate the interrelationships of the labour input with other variables inside the farms and assess how the sector may create more employment in a sustainable way. For that, the labour input was, first, correlated with other farm variables and after analysed through factor analysis approaches and cross-section econometric methodologies, considering as basis the Cobb-Douglas and Verdoorn-Kaldor models. The main findings highlight relevant insights to improve the social dimension of the European Union farms. The labour input growth rate is positively influenced by the total output growth rates and negatively impacted by the total productivity growth. The effects from the investment and from the subsidies are residual or not significant.


Author(s):  
Shannon Dinan

The European Union has no unilateral legislative capacity in the area of social policy. However, the European Commission does play the role of guide by providing a discursive framework and targets for its 28 Member States to meet. Since the late 1990’s, the EU’s ideas on social policy have moved away from the traditional social protection model towards promoting social inclusion, labour activation and investing in children. These new policies represent the social investment perspective, which advocates preparing the population for a knowledge-based economy to increase economic growth and job creation and to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The EU began the gradual incorporation of the social investment perspective to its social dimension with the adoption of ten-year strategies. Since 2000, it has continued to set goals and benchmarks as well as offer a forum for Member States to coordinate their social initiatives. Drawing on a series of interviews conducted during a research experience in Brussels as well as official documents, this paper is a descriptive analysis of the recent modifications to the EU’s social dimension. It focuses on the changes created by the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Social Investment Package. By tracing the genesis and evolution of these initiatives, the author identifies four obstacles to social investment in the European Union's social dimension.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v10i1.263


2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-753
Author(s):  
Cynthia Jean

Since the objective of the European Union is to be closer to Us citizens, the Treaty of Amsterdam contributes to the development and the significance of the European citizenship. Through a neo-liberal perspective, it strengthens, in both national and community levels, the compromise between democratic values, such as social justice and equity principle, and economic liberalism. While the social dimension of the European citizenship is reinforced, the specific rights provided only to Union's citizens are, however, marginalized. In order to explain this situation, the paper will first present the implications of the European citizenship, and then, analyze the main provisions of the draft treaty related to a stronger relationship between the Union and Us citizens.


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