scholarly journals EU citizenship and social solidarity

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 703-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Mantu ◽  
Paul Minderhoud
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

In this article, we seek to place the CJEU’s recent case law on social rights for economically inactive EU citizens within the larger political context of the last couple of years that has been characterized by the increased contestation of the type of mobility underpinning EU citizenship. The relationship between EU citizenship and social solidarity – in the form of social rights for mobile EU citizens – has taken centre stage during the Brexit affair. Political debates concerning the free movement of (poor) EU citizens have focused upon the issues of the abuse of free movement rights and welfare tourism, despite a lack of evidence that the two are actually taking place on a large scale within the EU. The now defunct Brexit deal highlights the extension of debates that initially focused on economically inactive EU citizens to EU workers, whose mobility had been considered a positive aspect of EU integration. The scope of social solidarity in the EU is demoted as a result of judicial and political interventions that question the social dimension of EU citizenship and which may have implications for other groups of migrants situated within the EU.

scholarly journals Exploring the limits of social solidarity: welfare tourism and EU citizenship

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 4-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Mantu ◽  
Paul Minderhoud
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
The Eu

Political debates concerning the free movement of (poor) EU citizens (mainly from the newer EU Member States) have focused upon the twin issues of abuse of free movement rights and welfare tourism, despite the lack of meaningful evidence that the two are actually taking place on a wide scale in the EU. This article discusses the increasing political contestation of EU mobility as captured by notions such as, welfare tourism and poverty migration. The analysis of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on issues of social rights and EU citizenship shows a noticeable shift towards stricter interpretations of the scope of social solidarity for mobile EU citizens. We argue that the coupling of these two aspects of EU mobility raises questions about the scope of EU citizenship and its nature as a fundamental status.

Social mainstreaming through the European pillar of social rights: Shielding ‘the social’ from ‘the economic’ in EU policymaking

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ane Aranguiz
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Article 9 ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Market ◽  
The Eu

Implementing fiscal consolidation measures without first considering social stabilisers has led to turn what originally was an economic recession into a social crisis too. The economic and social divergences in Europe have increased to a point where the future of the social dimension of the EU has been put into question. There is however, a provision in the Treaties that obliges the EU to take into account social issues in all its policies and activities, namely, the so-called horizontal social clause enshrined in Article 9 TFEU. The potential of this clause to mainstream the social dimension of the EU and foster balance between social and economic policies has, however, not yet been untapped. The recently launched European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), which aims at achieving a highly competitive social market economy, brings to the table a number of rights-based objectives along with a number of indicators that might shed some light over the constraints faced by the horizontal social clause. This article aims at unravelling the potential of the horizontal social clause in envisioning parity between the social and the economic and providing a social pillar to the EU. This contribution provides first a legal analysis of Article 9 TFEU and it briefly discusses the problematic behind its poor implementation. Later, the potential of the horizontal social clause is discussed in the light of the current developments in the framework of economic governance. This article also suggests a number of scenarios where social mainstreaming should be duly implemented. It suggests that Article 9 TFEU may have an important role, in particular, with regard to austerity measures when envisioning it together with the EPSR.

scholarly journals Regions without borders? Regional governance, migration, and social protection in Africa and Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Deacon ◽  
Lorenzo Fioramonti ◽  
Sonja Nita
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Active Population ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
Free Movement Of Workers ◽  
The Eu

In many respects, Europe and Africa (particularly Southern Africa) represent two opposing examples in the study of intra-regional migration and social cohesion. The European Union (EU) has been a global pioneer in allowing freedom of movement and portability of social rights across member states. A centerpiece of the EU integration process has been the progressive establishment of a common market, in which goods, services, capital, and people can move freely. With regard to the la􀄴 er, the concept of free movement originally only targeted the economically active population (in other words, the free movement of workers) but was gradually extended by Treaty amendments to all citizens of the EU. This extension was further strengthened by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, which introduced the concept of citizenship in the European Union thereby establishing the fundamental and personal right to move and reside freely within the EU.

scholarly journals Sympathy for the Devil? Exploring Flexicurity Win–Win Promises

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo de Pedraza ◽  
Marcos Álvarez-Díaz ◽  
Marcos Domínguez-Torreiro
Keyword(s):  
Social Rights ◽  
Income Security ◽  
Unemployment Rates ◽  
Golden Triangle ◽  
The Social ◽  
Employment Security ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Generous Welfare ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Flexicurity is the combination of more flexibility for employers and more security for workers. It is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that lacks a well-developed monitoring framework or a statistically consistent grouping of the indicators. First, this paper proposes a conceptual framework by building upon the Wilthagen and Tros (2004) flexicurity matrix and the Danish Golden Triangle. It constructs flexicurity “drivers” by pooling together variables that are conceptually related to each other and a specific type of flexibility or security. Then, it obtains statistically consistent aggregate measures for each driver and selects three drivers that represent the three corners of the Danish “golden triangle”: external numerical flexibility, employment security, and income security. It conducts an empirical analysis on the evolution of the selected flexicurity drivers over time and across European Union (EU) countries and on the relationship between selected flexicurity drivers and social outcomes from the Social Scoreboard of the European Pillar of Social Rights. It finds evidence of convergence on external numerical flexibility and polarization on employment and income security across the EU. It finds that higher flexibility at the onset of the crisis contributed to a reduction in the unemployment rates after the crisis, while a more generous welfare system contributed to reducing poverty. Employment security, however, appears to be linked to the presence of higher levels of income inequality after the crisis.

scholarly journals EU equality law after a decade of austerity

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 163-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Benedi Lahuerta ◽  
Ania Zbyszewska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Eu Legislation ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
The Social ◽  
Integration Project ◽  
Policy Proposals ◽  
The Eu

This article discusses the evolution of European Union (EU) legislation and policymaking methods during the 10 years since the onset of the financial and economic crisis in 2007/2008. In the EU, this period has been characterized by politics of stimulus, austerity, and recovery. Against the backdrop of longer term developments in equality law, we consider how the crisis context influenced this field’s evolution. Through the analysis of a range of legislative and policy proposals, we show that the progressive softening or hybridization of equality law over this period has gone hand in hand with the stronger articulation of equality objectives in terms of a “business case.” While this approach appears to have enabled the proliferation of policy and legal instruments and expanded the reach of equality law into areas where the EU has limited competence to legislate, it has also elevated instrumental economic goals for action at expense of human rights or social rationales. This longer term tendency is also present in the recently adopted European Pillar of Social Rights, and the accompanying policy documentation, which have been hailed as carrying potential to infuse more coherence and to rebalance the social and economic rationales that the EU integration project has unevenly promoted over the years. Mindful that it is still too early for conclusive judgments, we suggest, however, that the transformative possibilities the Pillar carries are likely to be undermined by its soft and economically oriented thrust.

Distrust unbound: What next after joining the EU

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Guerra
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

The 2004–07 EU enlargement towards the post-communist region showed that the long waiting for EU membership could impact on levels of public support for the EU. This article examines citizens’ trust towards national and international institutions after joining the EU in Poland, in comparative perspective. In the post-Communist region, levels of trust towards national institutions are generally lower compared to the European and international ones. Politicians and political parties are the most distrusted actors, undermining the social and political fabric in the region. An overview of political participation and levels of trust with focus on national data sets and the European Social Survey shows that levels of trust are quite low and a share of the population is concerned with sovereignty vis-à-vis EU integration. This analysis addresses how the relationship between citizens and institutions have changed and how this may affect not just the EU’s policies towards candidate countries and third countries, but how it can also affect citizen participation during the process of democratization and after joining the EU.

scholarly journals Protection of Social Rights as a Permament Challenge for the European Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-143
Author(s):  
Joanna Ryszka
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
The Social ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Eu

Social rights protection in the European Union has undergone significant development. Currently their protection is regulated by relevant treaty provisions and the Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charter), both of a primary law nature, as well as by the non-binding European Pillar of Social Rights (Pillar). The aim of the paper is the assessment of the social rights protection in the EU, and whether all social rights provided in the CFR have their counterparts in the EPSR, hence whether and in what way the EPSR assists the actual exercise of social rights provided by the CFR. Comparing the content of the above-mentioned legal instruments makes it possible to answer the question whether all social rights provided in the Charter have their counterparts in the Pillar. This can help determine whether the latter affects the implementation of the former. If the answer is in the affirmative, it can further allow for determining in what way the principles of the Pillar assist in the actual exercise of social rights provided by the Charter. This is very important taking into account the need for an ongoing response to unforeseen threats, like for example COVID-19. The social aspects of EU integration thus are and will remain a subject of interest in the nearest future.

Digital single market - a new impetus on EU social policy?

2020 ◽  
Vol 338 ◽  
pp. 265-275
Author(s):  
Daniel Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Single Market ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
The Social ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
Current Reform ◽  
Training Programmes

In July 2019 the new president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented her guidelines for the period of presidency 2019-2024. While most proposals perpetuate the current reform agenda, the focus on the social dimension of the single market is remarkable. Von der Leyen has not only announced the full implementation of the European Pillar on Social Rights, but also highlighted new investment in digital competences seen as a key to competitiveness and innovation of the European economy. This paper will discuss whether the dynamics of the digital single market could lead to a new impetus on EU social policy and on European funding of training programmes. Therefore, an overview of significant funding programmes promoting digital skills is given.

scholarly journals Realizing the Social Dimension of EU Coastal Water Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2261
Author(s):  
David Langlet ◽  
Aron Westholm
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Waters ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Current System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Eu Directive ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Eu

In the last 20 years, the EU has adopted some rather ambitious pieces of legislation with the aim to achieve a good environmental status in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Both the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) have a strong focus on the natural environment and biological criteria for assessing the status of the relevant ecosystems. In the same time period, much research on environmental governance has focused on the interconnectedness of social systems and ecosystems, so-called social-ecological systems (SES). While having high aspirations, the legal frameworks underpinning current EU water and marine management do not necessarily reflect the advances of contemporary science relating to SES. Using the geographical intersection of the two directives, i.e., coastal waters as a focal point, the paper explores the inchoate integration of social and ecological perspectives in the EU marine governance. What are the main challenges for the current EU legal regimes for managing coastal waters in a way that builds on the understanding of social and ecological systems as interconnected? Having explored the two directives, the paper introduces the possibility of using marine spatial planning (MSP), and the EU directive establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning (MSPD) as a bridge between the social and ecological dimensions and discusses what implications this would have for the current system for governing coastal waters in Europe.

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