Catherine Barnard

A European Social Union after the Crisis

Many people believe that the EU lacks solidarity and needs a social dimension. This debate is not new but, until recently, the notion of a ‘social Europe’ remained vague and elusive. What is now required is a coherent conception of the reasons behind and the agenda for a European Social Union. This book offers the first in-depth examination of the rationale and feasibility of such a Social Union. It explores how we can justify, define and demarcate an appropriate notion of European solidarity and examines legal and political barriers. In short, rather than merely deploring the lack of a social dimension to the EU, it provides new perspectives and answers to questions of ‘why’, ‘what’, and ‘how’. A cast of outstanding scholars and practitioners reflect on the obstacles and solutions, incorporating economic, social, philosophical, legal and political perspectives. on this title

The European Social Union and EU Legislative Politics

The process of integration towards a European Social Union consists of both past achievements and current deficits. It has developed on a delicate balance between on the one hand constitutive community principles of free movement and non-discrimination and on the other hand Member State jealously guarding their welfare competences. Despite national concerns, EU social integration has occurred. Primary and secondary social legislation has been adopted through the years, building up a Community social dimension with coordination of social security across borders, equal pay and treatment between gender, health and safety at the work place, employment law, regulation regarding insolvency, the posting of workers, the social dialogue, etcetera. In addition, the open methods of coordination address a wider range of social issues, however, without being binding on the Member States. On the other hand, European integration challenges social protection. The more recent economic governance of the European Union constrains national welfare policies. Convergence criteria, the stability and growth pact, and the European semester strain contemporary social and fiscal policies in the Member States. The crises and austerity measures work severely against social policies both at the European and national level as various contributions in this volume demonstrate.

Booms, Busts and the Governance of the Eurozone

Since the eruption of the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone, substantial efforts have been made to create a new form of governance for the Eurozone that will make the Monetary Union more robust in absorbing future economic and fi nancial shocks. Much of the drive to adapt the governance of the Eurozone has been infl uenced by the traditional theory of optimal currency areas (OCA), which stresses the need for fl exibility in product and labour markets . As a result, the Eurozone countries have been pushed towards structural reforms that aim to reduce the structural rigidities in product and labour markets, in the hope that this would lead to a more resilient monetary union capable of withstanding future asymmetric shocks. Figure 7.1 , which presents the OECD product market legislation index, shows that the Eurozone countries have introduced structural reforms at a faster pace than the rest of the OECD countries. Figure 7.2 , which presents the OECD index of employment protection, shows how the Eurozone has signifi cantly reduced its tight employment protection, especially since the sovereign debt crisis in 2010. It is interesting to note that since the early 1990s the nonEurozone OECD countries have followed a reverse trend of increasing employment protection. In this chapter, we ask whether this movement towards structural reform as part of the push for new governance is going in the right direction. We will argue that this is not the case. The main reason is that the nature of the shocks that have hit the Eurozone does not correspond to the pattern of asymmetric shocks that has been identifi ed by the OCA theory to require more fl exibility. We will argue that what is needed in the Eurozone