Dear Colleague,
We cordially invite you to the next wiiw seminar 'Policy Perspectives for European Integration' on
Monday, 18 January 2016, 4 pm
wiiw, Vienna 6, Rahlgasse 3, lecture hall (entrance from the ground floor)
The Social Dimension of the EU and the EMU – the way forward
László Andor
Former EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion,
currently at Corvinus University of Budapest and Hans Böckler Stiftung, Düsseldorf
Abstract
A strong social dimension is indispensable for the legitimacy of the EU. However, the social agenda of the EU has been defined in the Delors era, and it has been primarily focusing on social legislation. Together with cohesion instruments in the EU budget, social legislation has ensured that the single market does not lead to a polarisation among Member States and it makes real convergence possible. However, the establishment of a minimalist monetary union produced new types of financial and social risks, and the crisis of the EMU has resulted in massive divergence and a weakening of the national welfare systems. The financial crisis has produced an unprecedented social crisis, and it would be illusory to assume that the social agenda alone can compensate for the malfunctioning of the monetary union. It is the monetary union itself which needs to be reconstructed. All countries in the EU have the ambition to be welfare states in the sense of being able to control unemployment, poverty and income inequality. The eurozone crisis has severely damaged this capacity in countries of the eurozone periphery. Since the EMU controls most of the parameters that frame national welfare systems, and especially fiscal capacity, social policy cannot be a matter of subsidiarity either. The EU social agenda has to cover a wide spectrum of policies (policy coordination, legislation, budget resources) but today the key question is how to strengthen the social dimension of the EMU and counter social divergence.
(Papers and Powerpoint presentations, as far as available, are posted on our homepage http://wiiw.ac.at/events.html after the respective seminars.)
Best regards
Univ.Prof.Dr. Michael Landesmann Dr. Sándor Richter
Scientific Director wiiw Organizer
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Michaela Bönisch
Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (wiiw)
The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies
Rahlgasse 3, A-1060 Wien
T: +43 1 533 66 10 - 40
F: +43 1 533 66 10 - 50
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