Implementing Social Europe in Times of Crises - Re-established Boundaries of Welfare?

While the EU legitimacy crisis and the Great Recession prevail, certain European Union principles and policies have to be implemented in the member states. This volume explores the diverse processes, stages and subjects of implementation in a variety of social policies to identify different institutional dynamics and actor behaviours at play. The individual contributions examine the transposition of the patients’ rights directive to the Europeanisation of pension reforms; the role of national parliaments in transposing social Europe; judicial Europeanisation; and the multi-level enforcement of EU decisions. Theoretically, the contributions in this book highlights the fact that implementation is often conditioned by domestic politics or comes as a ‘random walk’ due to organisational and cognitive constraints. Empirically, the volume has three main findings. First, the constitutive components of the EU tend to have a contradictory impact on the EU’s social policies and the national welfare systems. Second, crises influence the implementation of social Europe, at times leading to a modification of fundamental principles and content, but not across the board. Third, as a result, there is evidence of differentiated Europeanisation. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

1. Implementing Social Europe in Times of Crises: Re-established Boundaries of Welfare? 2. Transposition and National Level Resources – Introducing the Cross Border Health Care Directive in Eastern Europe 3. Bounded Rationality in Transposition Processes: The Case of the European Patients’ Rights Directive 4. Altered Europeanization of pension reform in the context of the Great Recession? Denmark and Italy compared 5. Clawing Back Lost Powers? Parliamentary Scrutiny over the Transposition of EU Social Policy Directives in the Netherlands 6. Judicial Europeanization: The case of Zambrano in Ireland 7. Europeanization with Many Unknowns: National Company Law Reforms after Centros 8. Enforcing Social Europe through Labour Inspectorates: Changes in Capacity and Cooperation across Europe 9. Social Europe and its components in the midst of crisis: A Conclusion