The Social Dimension of the EU

This section welcomes panel proposals on the changing ‘European social model’. The European Social Model is understood broadly, covering welfare states, labour markets, as well as research and innovation. Panel proposals may include how the European Semester – a major institutional change – affects the EU policy coordination regime and member states, from perspectives such as diffusion of ideas, institutional change, governance, European integration and democracy. The Lisbon Treaty has altered the EU’s constitutional base – what opportunities and obstacles does this led to with regard to the European social model? Panel proposals may focus on the relationship between law and politics, as well as politics and economics, with regard to European social policy and innovation. How have boundaries between the EU and national levels altered? With regards to the core of the European social model – the coordination of social security systems – the social policy regime has expanded the material and personal scope of social rights, largely due to the ‘activist’ interpretive role of the ECJ. The covered social protection areas concern not only cash benefits, ranging from pensions to family allowances, and student money, but also benefits in kind (welfare services), to which the literature has devoted far less attention. The underlying principles and the implementation across Member States of recent ECJ judgements are of particular concern to assess their impact on the evolution of welfare state solidarity. This section welcomes panel proposals that address whether and if so, how, welfare states are altering in the wake of new judgements as well as new legislation, in areas such as pensions, health care and labour market policy. Overall, this section welcomes papers applying different theoretical approaches, with respect to theories of European integration and on the role of ideas, interests and institutions on the development of a ‘European’ social policy. We encourage applicants to present panels that encompass EU integration together with comparative politics.