Social Europe: EU Socio-Economic Governance and Welfare Markets

After many years of stagnation, Social Europe is displaying a new élan. The adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights in 2017, building on earlier developments such as the ‘socialization’ of the European Semester, has given a renewed impetus for pursuing the EU’s social values and objectives not only through policy coordination and non-binding recommendations, but also through legislation on hot-button issues such as work-life balance and adequate minimum wages. The set-up of Next Generation EU in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has confirmed this impulse, pressing member states to adopt progressive reforms in their National Recovery and Resilience Plans in order to address social challenges identified in the Semester’s Country-Specific Recommendations, while providing increased financial resources for social investment. At the same time, however, old and new challenges remain acute. The ability of the EU to steer progressive welfare states reforms remain uncertain, social security schemes exhibit significant gaps and come under threat in the digital era, and the green transition is only likely to exacerbate existing inequalities, to only name a few. Many political conflict lines (left/right, north/south, contributors vs. recipients, etc.) seem to be persisting over time. This section invites panel and paper proposals on all aspects of EU socio-economic governance and social policy, and their interplay with fiscal policy, environmental policy and marketization. We are especially interested in the following aspects. What explains the revival and reinforcement of the EU’s social agenda over the past decade? What are the dynamics of social and employment policy making at EU and national level, and how do these interact with one another? Who are the key actors involved and what roles do they play in the decision-making processes at different levels? How effective is the EU’s renewed social policy agenda? How should we assess the new rights and resources it seeks to provide? How can the RRF contribute to social investment and progressive welfare state reform? Is there a proper social conditionality in the EU recovery agenda? Is the EU’s agenda for a “just transition” taking social inequality seriously? What do we know about the marketization of welfare in the areas of, for instance, long term care, healthcare, or pensions? Can the market fill in the gaps in times of insufficient public revenue? Do the politics of “Social Europe” in terms of ideas and discourse, party politics and social mobilization exhibit continuity or change compared to the previous decades? The section especially welcomes papers that advance an original theoretical approach and provide empirical insights to address these questions.