scholarly journals National and Supranational in the Social Policy of the European Union in a Period of Global Transformations

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-97
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Field ◽  
Complete Control ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Eu

The paper presents specific aspects and goals of social policy of the European Un­ion (EU). The historical review chronologically presents the development of the EU’s social policy along with the development of the euro­integration. The specific features of EU social policy have been analyzed: limited legislative powers of EU institutions, almost complete control of the national governments of mem­ber states in the social field, and the indirect mechanisms of influence and monitoring on national policy by EU institutions. Special at­tention is paid to the study of mechanisms for implementing EU social policies that support national social policies, i.e. the labour mar­ket, employment and unemployment control; working conditions, free access to jobs and the fight against all forms of discrimination; social support, health and pensions; solu­tions in the field of demographic policy, the fight against poverty and social exclusion, and much more. As a result, the possibilities of structural, investment and social funds distrib­uted by the EU to beneficiaries in member states to achieve the common goals of the Union, as well as the EU regulatory mecha­nisms for implementing common standards through programs, rules and directives, have been studied. Achievements in the social field of the EU, new challenges, problems and prospects for the development of social policy of the EU have been analyzed.

Marshall revisited: EU social policy from a social-rights perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-435
Author(s):  
Stefanie Börner
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Level ◽  
Social Commitment ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social

The common legal and economic framework of the European Union (EU) has turned the vast socio-economic differences within Europe into virulent problems of social inequality – issues that it attempts to tackle within its limited resources. The article takes the EU’s self-expressed social commitment as a starting point and analyses its approaches to social policy from a social-rights perspective. It first discusses why Marshall’s social-citizenship concept provides a useful analytical tool to assess the social policies enacted so far at the European level and then presents an institutional analysis of the EU’s four major social-policy activities: harmonising, funding, coordination and cooperation. This analysis focuses on the horizontal and vertical relationships and the addressees of these policies to determine how these policies measure up against social-rights standards. The findings point to the poor development of transnational social citizenship given the special nature of EU social policies. The only social rights that exist at the European level are in the field of social-security coordination. And even those are marked by a double selectivity that excludes citizens who are not transnationally active and those who are but lack the necessary means to provide for themselves.

Social Policy and European Union Politics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Daly
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Policy Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
The Eu

Social policy has a particular character and set of associated politics in the European Union (EU) context. There is a double contestation involved: the extent of the EU’s agency in the field and the type of social policy model pursued. The former is contested because social policy is typically and traditionally a matter of national competence and the latter because the social policy model is crucial to economic and market development. Hence, social policy has both functional and political significance, and EU engagement risks member states’ capacity to control the social fate of their citizens and the associated resources, authority, and power that come with this capacity. The political contestations are at their core territorially and/or social class based; the former crystalizes how wide and extensive the EU authority should be in social policy and the latter a left/right continuum in regard to how redistributive and socially interventionist EU social policy should be. Both are the subject of a complicated politics at EU level. First, there is a diverse set of agents involved, not just member states and the “political” EU institutions (Parliament and Council) but the Commission is also an important “interested” actor. This renders institutional politics and jockeying for power typical features of social policymaking in the EU. Second, one has to break down the monolith of the EU institutions and recognize that within and among them are actors or units that favor a more left or right position on social policy. Third, actors’ positions do not necessarily align on the two types of contestation (apart perhaps from the social nongovernmental organizations and to a lesser extent employers and business interests). Some actors who favor an extensive role for social policy in general are skeptical about the role of the EU in this regard (e.g., trade unions, some social democratic parties) while others (some sectors of the Commission) wish for a more expansive EU remit in social policy but also support a version of social policy pinned tightly to market and economic functions. In this kind of context, the strongest and most consistent political thrust is toward a type of EU social policy that is most clearly oriented to enabling the Union’s economic and market-related objectives. Given this and the institutional set-up, the default position in EU social policy is for a market-making social policy orientation on the one hand and a circumscribed role for the EU in social policy on the other.

The Constitutional (Im)balance between ‘the Market’ and ‘the Social’ in the European Union

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sacha Garben
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Eu

An assessment of the balance between ‘the market’ and ‘the social’ by reference to the areas of social policy, the internal market and economic governance – Imbalance resulting from a consitutional displacement of the legislative process (EU and national) and instead decision-making by the judiciary and the executive – Proposals to address the imbalance by reinforcing the role of the EU legislative process and limiting other forms of European integration.

Social Investment as a Policy Platform

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Vandenbroucke
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Education Spending ◽  
Overlapping Consensus ◽  
Member States ◽  
Policy Perspective ◽  
The Social ◽  
Broad Consensus ◽  
The Eu

This contribution argues for a truly reciprocal social investment pact for Europe: member states should be committed to policies that respond to the need for social investment; simultaneously, member states’ efforts in this direction—notably efforts by those in a difficult budgetary context—should be supported in a tangible way. Social investment is a policy perspective that should be based on a broad consensus between people who may entertain certain disagreements regarding the level of their empirical and/or normative understanding of the social world. For that reason, the expression of an ‘overlapping consensus’ is used for delineating social investment advocacy. Data on education spending show that we are far removed from a social investment perspective at the European Union (EU) level. This underscores the fact that social investment advocates need to clearly consider the role the EU has to play in social investment progress.

scholarly journals Silent Non-Exit and Broken Voice. Early Postcommunist Social Policies as Protest-Preempting Strategies

Südosteuropa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174
Author(s):  
Pieter Vanhuysse
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Action Theory ◽  
Political Sociology ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
Distributive Conflict

Abstract This essay contributes to the development of an analytical political sociology examination of postcommunist policy pathways and applies such an analysis in a reinterpretation of the social policy pathways taken by Hungary and Poland. During the critical historical juncture of the early 1990s, governments in these new democracies used social policies to proactively create new labor market outsiders (rather than merely accommodate or deal with existing outsiders) in an effort to stifle disruptive repertoires of political voice. Microcollective action theory helps to elucidate how the break-up of hitherto relatively homogeneous clusters of threatened workers into newly competing interest groups shaped the nature of distributive conflict in the formative first decade of these new democracies. In this light, we see how the analytical political sociology of postcommunist social policy can advance and modify current, predominantly Western-oriented theories of insider/outsider conflict and welfare retrenchment policy, and can inform future debates about emerging social policy biases in Eastern Europe.

Conditions and prospects for cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian local governments

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 221-241
Author(s):  
Mariusz W. Sienkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
The Eu

The fact that Poland and Ukraine share a border, the convergence of the political goals of the peoples of both countries, and the constant efforts towards the development of democracy and decentralisation of public life determine the need to intensify cooperation in various areas of the functioning of society and the economy. An important sphere of cooperation is the public sector, in particular at the level of local government. The local government cooperation of both countries was already visible at the beginning of the social and political transformations after 1990. The development of this cooperation, with varying results, took place in the 1990s and, to an even greater extent, after Poland’s accession to the European Union. In the last three decades, local and regional communities in Ukraine have become an important partner for Polish local governments, both at the local and regional levels. The local government cooperation that has been implemented is based on the diversification and multidimensionality of forms and models. Some result from legal regulations, while others are based on mutual experiences, previous contacts, and sympathies of public authorities. The aim of the study is to analyse and present the conditions and forms of Polish-Ukrainian local government cooperation. The aim is also to show the barriers to cooperation and to define proposed solutions to improve partner contacts of territorial units. The local government cooperation of the two countries is undoubtedly hindered by the fact that Ukraine is not a member of the EU, and often by mutual misunderstanding and non-acceptance of historical experiences. On the other hand, common goals at different levels of social, public, and economic life are a significant factor motivating parties to increase cooperation and achieve a synergistic effect thanks to it.

SOCIAL WELFARE OF MIGRANT WORKERS IN THE EU: COMPARATIVE MODELS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LEGAL INTEGRATION SYSTEM OF THE EAEU STATES

2021 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Dmitry V. Agashev ◽  
◽  
Sergey G. Trifonov ◽  
Kristine V. Trifonova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Eu

The article assesses the EU legal system as a unique institutional unit and highlights its features. It deals with the comparative legal aspects of the regulation of the social welfare of migrant workers in the EU and the EAEU. Attention is paid to the study of legislation on social welfare for migrant workers in the EU, as well as the possibility of realizing the experi-ence accumulated within the EAEU. It is emphasized that the use of comparative models con-cerning the social welfare of migrant workers in the EU and the EAEU can be productive, taking into account the analysis of the state and dynamics of the EU's legal policy in its historical development. The authors have analyzed the historical stages reflecting the difference within the EU approaches to the regulation of social welfare relations for migrant workers. The emphasis is on the role of EU administrative institutions, which provide a balancing approach to the key principles and social policy settings, due to the desire to eliminate distortions and possible conflicts between the norms of states. At the same time, EU members have the competence within the existing common standards of financial security obligations to expand the estab-lished standards and this makes the EU's social policy geographically differentiated. It is noted that the allied states, formed on trade and economic grounds, such as the EU and the EAEU, are characterized by an objective desire for a single legal space, with the uni-fication of approaches on the social welfare of migrant workers throughout the Union. Never-theless, in complex interstate unions, it is impossible to abandon the principle of multi-level regulation of social and security relations, and in this sense, the situation in the EU and the EAEU is quite similar. The current state of EU law in terms of regulating the relations under consideration largely preserves national legal regimes, and each of them, through its special legal means, determines a different amount of social rights of migrant workers. In the context of the EAEU, a similar approach should not be considered productive, since it does not contribute to the goals of this interstate association, defined by Article 4 of the Treaty on its creation. Therefore, within the framework of the EAEU, it is advisable to fix as early as possible the uniform standards in the area of social welfare of migrant workers, estab-lishing a relatively narrow range of powers of the member states of the Union.

Global Governance vs. Regional Governance in Social Policy

2017 ◽  
pp. 40-59
Author(s):  
Adviye Damla Ünlü
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Governance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Process Context ◽  
Bretton Woods Institutions

Globalization, the much-debated phenomenon of the last decade, has affected the governance of policies. Social policy governance is one of the most affected notions of the globalization process. Context of debates on social policy governance has been transformed from state-centric analysis to the multi-centric analysis. The future of the social policy is highly linked to both global governance and regional governance. In this regard, the aim of this chapter is to draw attention to the multi-centric nature of the social policy governance and to form a framework for the effects of intergovernmental institutions on social policy governance and to discuss their weaknesses and strengths particularly regarding the United Nations, Bretton Woods institutions and the European Union.

Transmigration: the rise of flexible migration strategies as part of superdiversity

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-121
Author(s):  
Dirk Geldof ◽  
Mieke Schrooten ◽  
Sophie Withaeckx
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Scientific Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Frameworks ◽  
Migration Strategies ◽  
The Eu

This chapter assesses transmigration. Within the fields of migration studies and superdiversity, transmigration and its impact on social policy are still underexplored. Yet, the rising number of transmigrants within Europe — from outside the EU as well as intra-EU-mobility — does not only challenge ideas of belonging and integration, but also existing concepts of governance and social policy. By foregrounding the cases of Brazilian, Ghanaian, and Moroccan transmigrants residing in Belgium in 2014–15, the chapter contributes to a scientific debate regarding these topics. It presents the results of a research project in the two main superdiverse Belgian cities (Brussels and Antwerp), focusing on the social problems and vulnerabilities that relate to transmigration and its inherent temporality and the way that these are experienced and addressed by social workers in superdiverse urban areas within policy frameworks that often do not (yet) recognise the changing context.

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