Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2015 PDF Download

Author: David Natali (OSE)
Publisher: ETUI
ISBN: 2874523747
Category : European Union countries
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
The sixteenth edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play has a triple ambition. First, it provides easily accessible information to a wide audience about recent developments in both EU and domestic social policymaking. Second, the volume provides a more analytical reading, embedding the key developments of the year 2014 in the most recent academic discourses. Third, the forward-looking perspective of the book aims to provide stakeholders and policymakers with specific tools that allow them to discern new opportunities to influence policymaking. In this 2015 edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play, the authors tackle the topics of the state of EU politics after the parliamentary elections, the socialisation of the European Semester, methods of political protest, the Juncker investment plan, the EU’s contradictory education investment, the EU’s contested influence on national healthcare reforms, and the neoliberal Trojan Horse of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Author: Karen M. Anderson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137495154
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Social policy has become an increasingly prominent component of the European Union's policy-making responsibilities. Today, for example, a highly developed body of law regulates equal treatment in social security and co-ordinates national security schemes; national health services have opened up to patients and service providers from other states; and rules govern the translation of educational and vocational certificates across member states. This state of affairs is all the more remarkable given the relatively limited resources at the EU's disposal and the initial intentions of its founders. During negotiations for the Treaty of Rome in the 1950s, social policy was viewed as the exclusive provenance of the member states. There were to be provisions to facilitate labour mobility within the common market, but until the 1970s social policy making at the EU-level was modest. However, plans for the internal market moved social policy on the EU's decision-making agenda. The Social Chapter was adopted in 1989, and the Single European Act expanded EU competencies in social policy. The Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice all expanded competencies further, so that by the time the heads of government met in Lisbon in 2007 to sign the EU's latest treaty, the extent of supranational control over important aspects of social policy making was quite impressive. This important book provides a full account of the evolution of social policy in the EU and of its current reach. It examines the reasons for the increased role of the EU in the area, in spite of formidable obstacles, and details its effects in member states, where social provision is often the biggest item in government budgets and a crucial issue in national elections. Drawing on research done on welfare states around the world and on European integration, this book provides a distinctive and sophisticated account of social policy in Europe, showing how it must now be understood in the context of multi-level governance in which EU institutions play a pivotal role.

Author: Stefanie Wöhl
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 365825419X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Against the backdrop of combating the financial and economic crisis in the European Union for the past decade, this volume strives to explore the manifold impacts the prevailing crisis management has on the further alignment of European Integration. The efforts targeted at overcoming the financial and economic crisis evoked far-reaching consequences on the societal, economic, and political level within European member states, which in turn challenge the institutional alignment, democratic legitimacy and economic coherence of the European Union. Taking into account current developments in the EU, the contributions presented in this volume focus on the ‘fault lines’ in the integration process, i.e. questions of policy coherence, democratic accountability, financialization, militarization, migration, gendered social and economic asymmetries as well as the rise of populist and extreme right-wing parties. The volume focuses on how these different developments come together by relating aspects of transdisciplinary research to uncover the fault lines in the European integration project in the subsequent chapters. ContentEconomic and Democratic Governance • Right Wing Populism and Right Extreme Parties • Financialization and Militarization • Social Exclusion, Welfare and Migration Policies EditorsProf. (FH) Dr. Stefanie Wöhl, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. Prof. (FH) Dr. Elisabeth Springler, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. Mag. Martin Pachel, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. Dr. Bernhard Zeilinger, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna.

Author: Ane Aranguiz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000563529
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
This book examines the potential role of European Union law in combating poverty and social exclusion in the European Union. Anti-poverty strategies have been part of the European Union agenda for decades. Most saliently, over a decade ago, the EU’s Member States pledged to lift 20 million people out of poverty. In spite of this commitment, the EU did not even meet a quarter of this target, and over 113 million people still were at risk of poverty and social exclusion by the end of 2020. This book addresses the incongruence between a quite developed EU policy strategy and a well-embedded legal objective on the one hand, and the lack of direct legal action on the other. Analysing the role of social policy instruments, fundamental rights, and the constitutional framework of the European Union, it makes a detailed case for a contribution of EU law to the policy objective of combating poverty and social exclusion. Drawing on work in law, politics, social policy and economics, this book will interest scholars and policymakers in the areas of EU law, labour and social security, human rights, political science and social and public policy.

Author: Peter Taylor-Gooby
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192507435
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
European welfare states are undergoing profound change, driven by globalization, technical changes, and population ageing. More immediately, the aftermath of the Great Recession and unprecedented levels of immigration have imposed additional pressures. This book examines welfare state transformations across a representative range of European countries and at the EU level, and considers likely new directions in social policy. It reviews the dominant neo-liberal austerity response and discusses social investment, fightback, welfare chauvinism, and protectionism. It argues that the class solidarities and cleavages that shaped the development of welfare states are no longer powerful. Tensions surrounding divisions between old and young, women and men, immigrants and denizens, and between the winners in a new, more competitive, world and those who feel left behind are becoming steadily more important. European countries have entered a period of political instability and this is reflected in policy directions. Austerity predominates nearly everywhere, but patterns of social investment, protectionism, neo-Keynesian intervention, and fightback vary between countries. The volume identify areas of convergence and difference in European welfare state futures in this up-to-date study - essential reading to grasp the pace and directions of change.

Author: Maurizio Ferrera
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1035311445
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Automation, digitalisation, the post-industrial transition and climate change are creating new social risks which are not adequately supported by established welfare state institutions. In this timely book, Maurizio Ferrera, Joan Miró and Stefano Ronchi propose critical social and institutional policy reform in response to the nation state’s inability to maintain a balanced ecosystem between democracy, the market economy, welfare and the rule of law.

Author: Monica Claes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 150995970X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
This book reflects on selected issues of European law in dialogue with leading legal scholar Bruno De Witte, whose work has enlightened generations of students, scholars and practitioners of European law. The volume is designed to mark the impressive academic oeuvre of a great legal mind and true academic whose elegant and insightful writings have decisively contributed to the advancement of the study of European law. The contributions attempt to 'make sense of European Union law' reflecting Bruno's mission as a legal scholar and commenting on some of the themes that he has worked on: constitutional Europe, differentiated Europe, social and educational Europe and minorities Europe. It culminates in reflections on the very nature of Bruno's scholarship and his academic persona. Not only is this book a public recognition and an expression of appreciation for all that Bruno has offered to the European legal community but also an invitation to challenge the way many scholars think of academic careers and their ways to success.

Author: William Outhwaite
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317297733
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Europe is one of the most dynamic and interesting areas of the world, pioneering in the European Union a new form of governance for half a billion people, represented in the world’s first directly elected transnational parliament. This book situates the European Union in a broader European, global, historical and geographical context, providing a readable presentation of the most important facts and drawing on the theoretical approaches which have transformed the study of contemporary Europe over the past two decades. The European Union is still on the road to what has been called 'an unknown destination', and this book presents its economic, political, legal and social trajectory from the middle of the last century to the present. Contemporary Europe covers some of these issues in an interdisciplinary framework, aiming to situate the development of the European Union in a broader context of pan-European and global processes. Europe has been cut down to size, but it does not have to become a global backwater, and the study of contemporary Europe’s institutional reality does not have to be boring The book counter this misperception, conveying the essential facts and theories of contemporary European reality in a clear and approachable analysis. It will serve as a readable introduction both to the academic field of European studies and to contemporary Europe itself.

Author: Tamara K. Hervey
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1785364723
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
The steady expansion of the European Union’s involvement in health over the past 20 years has been accelerated by recent events. This handbook offers an up-to-date analytical overview of the most important topics in EU health law and policy. It outlines, as far as possible, the direction of travel for each topic and suggests research agenda(s) for the future.

Author: Dukelow, Fiona
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447329627
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
When the first edition of Irish Social Policy was published in 2009, Ireland's enduring economic crisis was only beginning to emerge. In the time since, nearly all areas of Irish social policy have been significantly affected, as policy makers have sought to combat the numerous, multifaceted social challenges posed by Ireland's economic downfall. Retaining the first edition's original structure and the same highly accessible style, this second edition of Irish Social Policy is fully updated and revised to reflect these dramatic shifts. Needs and risks associated with recession and economic precarity have escalated, while social services have simultaneously been forced to cope with significant cutbacks and restructuring. Changes in the landscape of policy making processes and policy drivers are also occurring, as are shifts in the politics and ideas underpinning Ireland's social policy. Particularly timely in light of these ongoing changes, this imperative book offers a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to social policy in the evolving Ireland of today.