12. EU social policy between institutional consolidation and political challenges

Sven Schreurs (European University Institute)

David Bokhorst (European University Institute) 

In the past years, many scholars have come to discuss a revival of social Europe. In the slipstream of the European Pillar of Social Rights proclaimed in 2017, EU policymakers have enacted a host of new legislative, financial and governance instruments in social and labour market affairs  touching on issues from adequate minimum wages and minimum income, to the coverage of social protection systems, to gender equality and childcare provision. In the La Hulpe declaration of April 2024, an overwhelming majority of the EU institutions and Member States affirmed their support for the Social Pillar as the compass for European policy and governance in the coming decade. A growing literature has explored the driving forces and mechanisms behind this recent shift in the process of European integration. Nonetheless, several important questions remain. How - if at all - have these various EU initiatives left an impact on the ground, i.e. within the legal and policy regimes of the Member States as well as at the regional, local or even individual level? What kind of mechanisms determine their relative success or failure? And, going forward, to what extent can we expect that this development will remain durable in an age of renewed political concern with competitiveness and fiscal consolidation, as well as ostensibly competing priorities such as defence, migration and the green transition that have (re-)surfaced on the EU agenda?  

We welcome contributions from different disciplinary, theoretical and methodological angles that examine the determinants, implications and future prospects of the EU’s involvement in the realm of social and labour market policies.  

Among other things, papers could address: 

- The processes of agenda-setting, coalition-building and negotiation behind recent advances in the EU’s social and labour market policy;

- The use and implementation of recent EU legislative, soft-law and funding initiatives at the (sub-)national level;

- The (lack of) political and/or public support for further advances in social Europe;

- The practical and/or normative limitations to the EU’s involvement in social affairs and employment.