Is Constitutional Symmetry Enough? Social Models and Market Integration in the US and Europe

This article investigates the minority dimension of EU social policy and how the conceptualization of ethnic minorities' socio‐economic inclusion has evolved over time. Three findings are drawn from the close analysis of overlapping EU agendas on social inclusion and minority inclusion. First, although there are no comprehensive data on European minorities' socio‐economic condition, significant evidence has been collected at EU‐level that minorities are consistently at a disadvantage. Second, the growing recognition that minorities suffer disproportionately from socio‐economic exclusion has not been accompanied by an increasing willingness to consider structural policy approaches. Rather, a policy paradigm has emerged that prioritizes job creation, growth and employability as the one‐size‐fits‐all solution to social exclusion. I call this the ‘trickle‐down’ approach to minority social inclusion. Third, the economic crisis crystallized this mismatch between problem and EU policy approach but did not cause it.

Section: Trickle‐down Minority Social Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trickle‐Down Social Inclusion: The EU Minorities Agenda in Times of Crisis

Cianetti

2017

“…The PWD enumerates in Article 3 a number of areas in which the minimum standards of either the host country or sending country, whichever is better from the perspective of the worker, must apply. While this seems favourable for posted workers, it has since been reinterpreted in the light of the EU's ‘Four Freedoms’ of movement, in a series of European Court of Justice (ECJ) decisions in precisely the opposite direction to that originally intended by its proponents (Moses, ). For the purpose of this study, it is decisive that the Court supported, in these four cases, the practical implementation of a ‘country of origin’ principle, asserting that union or government regulation of labour conditions at foreign service providers constitutes a violation of the free movement rights as set out in the 1957 Treaty of Rome (Hyde and Ressaissi, ).…”

Section: Mechanisms For Opening the European Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

European Integration and the Disembedding of Labour Market Regulation: Transnational Labour Relations at the European Central Bank Construction Site

Wagner

Lillie

2013

European integration through mutual recognition has facilitated the growth of a pan-European labour supply system in which transnational subcontractors 'post' workers from low-wage areas to higher wage areas. This allows employers to create spaces of exception in which the national industrial relations system of the country where work occurs does not fully apply. Drawing on interviews with managers, workers, unionists and works councillors at the European Central Bank construction site in Frankfurt, Germany, this article shows how transnational subcontracting allows employers to access, and create competition between, sovereign regulatory regimes. It concludes that high-cost, high-collective good national systems such as the German one, which depend on territorial boundedness for their integrity, are likely to be destabilized by this aspect of European integration.

“…Theoretically this article deals with the so-called constitutional asymmetry in EU that have been observed in areas such as social and health policy (Clemens et al, 2014;Greer, 2011;Moses, 2011;Permanand and Mossialos, 2005;Scharpf, 2002Scharpf, , 2010. Constitutional asymmetry refers to situations where specific policy areas in EU are dominated by policies promoting market efficiency on behalf of policies promoting general (positive) political integration of the policy area (Scharpf, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

While We Are Waiting for the Superbug: Constitutional Asymmetry and EU Governmental Policies to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

Jensen

2020

This article analyses how constitutional asymmetry in EU health policy affects EU-governmental initiatives to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR has been viewed as one of the biggest threats to public health that will arise during the next two to three decades, both within the EU and globally. During the last decade the EU has taken a number of initiatives to combat AMR. The article finds that constitutional asymmetry in health policy has a major influence on how EU-AMR policies are developed and implemented. Policies relating to promotion initiatives (like selling pharmaceuticals in the EU) are implemented through hard law types of governance (directives and regulations), while policies more directly aiming at reducing the consumption of antimicrobials are implemented through soft law initiatives (open methods of coordination).