Abstract
This chapter relates to the development of the European social integration, which has been put on hold since the economic and financial crisis. From 2008 on, the European institutions focused on the economic coordination to respond to the crisis and postponed the European social model construction.
The chances of the European social integration lie in the social objectives set in the European treaties. Objectives such as full employment and social progress, fighting social exclusion and discrimination, promoting social justice became part of the European law. Multilevel governance on coordination of employment and social policies of the Member States was put in place alongside economic policies. The European institutions developed means to make the Member States’ policies comply with social objectives. The Court of Justice of the European Union recognized those objectives as social fundamental rights to which the Member States had to abide to. The Court initiated constructive case-law regarding especially European citizenship and social integration.
However, the economic and financial crisis showed the limits to the European social integration. Firstly, focusing on economic issues, social policies have been put to the back. New instruments, such as the European Semester, hardened the economic governance, which had tremendous consequences on welfare and widened the gap between the Member States (‘variable geometry’). Secondly, the focus on the public expenditure entailed a new shift in case-law. Since the Dano case, the Member States can refuse to grant a social advantage to non-worker European migrants on the mere argument of its public cost. Previously, such an argument would have been dismissed in consideration of European citizen’s rights and social integration.
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Notes
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All pertinent case law are referenced in the annex.
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For example, in France, the Finance Minister, who is on the frontline in the negotiations with the European Commission, has become a stronger actor in the welfare policy design (chapter “Muddling Through the Crisis: The French Welfare State Under Financial Stress” on France).
- 3.
ECJ 13 July 2004 Commission c/Council, C-27/04. Internet site: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2009-02/cp040057en.pdf
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Lisbon Strategy defined ‘a new strategic goal for the next decade: to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’(Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council 23–24 March 2000 point 5).
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This new governance, named OMC, consisted of:
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fixing guidelines for the Union combined with specific timetables for achieving the goals which they set in the short, medium and long terms;
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establishing, where appropriate, quantitative and qualitative indicators and benchmarks against the best in the world and tailored to the needs of different Member States and sectors as a means of comparing best practice;
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translating these European guidelines into national and regional policies by setting specific targets and adopting measures, taking into account national and regional differences;
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periodic monitoring, evaluation and peer review organised as mutual learning processes.
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A fully decentralised approach will be applied in line with the principle of subsidiarity in which the Union, the Member States, the regional and local levels, as well as the social partners and civil society, will be actively involved, using variable forms of partnership. A method of benchmarking best practices on managing change will be devised by the European Commission networking with different providers and users, namely the social partners, companies and NGOs’ (Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council 23–24 March 2000 points 37–38).
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- 6.
Radaelli’s definition of Europeanization: ‘Europeanization consists of processes of (a) construction, (b) diffusion and (c) institutionalisation of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms, styles, ‘ways of doing things’ and shared beliefs and norms which are first defined and consolidated in the EU policy process and then incorporated in the logic of domestic (national and subnational) discourse, political structures and public policies’ (Featherstone and Radaelli 2002).
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It entered into force on 1 December 2009.
- 8.
During the June session, the Social Protection Committee (SPC) made public four documents regarding the “the social dimension of the EU/EMU” (especially on the alarming situation of the poverty target), on an experimentation on ex-ante coordination of major social policy reforms, on minimum income schemes in the Euro area and on adequate social protection for long-term care needs in an ageing society.
- 9.
For example, the Recommendation of the Council of 8 July 2014 on the CSR for France has been published in the OJEU of 29 July 2014, C 247/42.
- 10.
Spain had only a bank rescue programme, from which it exited in December 2013.
- 11.
It is complementary to the Employment Package ‘Towards job-rich recovery’, Communication of the Commission of 18 April 2012, COM (2012) 173, to the White Paper on pensions of 16 February 2012, COM (2012) 55 and to the Youth Employment Package ‘Moving Youth into Employment’ of 5 December 2012, COM (2012) 727.
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The European Parliament recalled in a resolution ‘that social investments, being the provision and use of finance to generate social as well as economic returns, aim at addressing emerging social risks and unmet needs, and focus on public policies and human capital investment strategies that help and prepare individuals, families and societies to adapt to various transformations, manage their transition towards changing labour markets and face other challenges, including for example the acquisition of new skills for future job rich sectors’ European Parliament Resolution of 20 November 2012 on Social Investment Pact as a response to the crisis [2012/2003 (INI)].
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Case-Law
Case-Law
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All cases are available at http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/—Cases can be searched in reference to their case number (XX/XX), name of the parties or the date.
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Since the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the Court’s name has changed from CJEC to CJEU.
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CJEC, 5 February 1963.—NV Algemene Transport- en Expeditie Onderneming van Gend & Loos v Netherlands Inland Revenue Administration.—Case 26/62.
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CJEC, 15 July 1964.—Flaminio Costa v E.N.E.L.—Case 6/64.
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CJEC, 18 June 1987.—Centre public d’aide sociale de Courcelles v Marie-Christine Lebon.—Case 316/85.
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CJEC, 12 November 1996.—United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland v Council of the European Union.—Case C-84/94.
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CJEC, 12 May 1998.—María Martínez Sala v Freistaat Bayern.—Case C-85/96.
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CJEC, 20 September 2001.—Rudy Grzelczyk v Centre public d’aide sociale d’Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve.—Case C-184/99.
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CJEC, 7 September 2004.—Michel Trojani v Centre public d’aide sociale de Bruxelles (CPAS).—Case C-456/02.
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CJEC, 15 March 2005.—The Queen, on the application of Dany Bidar v London Borough of Ealing and Secretary of State for Education and Skills.—Case C-209/03.
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CJEU, 8 March 2011.—Gerardo Ruiz Zambrano v Office national de l’emploi (ONEm).—Case C-34/09.
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CJEU, 5 May 2011.—Shirley McCarthy v Secretary of State for the Home Department.—Case C-434/09
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CJEU, 14 June 2012.—European Commission v Kingdom of the Netherlands.—Case C-542/09.
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CJEU, 15 November 2011.—Murat Dereci and Others v Bundesministerium für Inneres.—Case C-256/11.
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CJEU, 11 November 2014.—Elisabeta Dano and Florin Dano v Jobcenter Leipzig.—Case C-333/13.
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Kerschen, N., Sweeney, M. (2016). Chances and Limits of the European Social Integration. In: Schubert, K., de Villota, P., Kuhlmann, J. (eds) Challenges to European Welfare Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07680-5_36
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