Full Description
This book examines the new economic governance (NEG) regime that the EU adopted after 2008. Its novel research design captures the supranational formulation of NEG prescriptions and their uneven deployment across countries (Germany, Italy, Ireland, Romania), policy areas (employment relations, public services), and sectors (transport, water, healthcare). NEG led to a much more vertical mode of EU integration, and its commodification agenda unleashed a plethora of union and social-movement protests, including transnationally. The book presents findings that are crucial for the prospects of European democracy, as labour politics is essential in framing the struggles about the direction of NEG along a commodification-decommodification axis rather than a national-EU axis. To shed light on corresponding processes at EU level, it upscales insights on the historical role that labour movements have played in the development of democracy and welfare states. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Contents
1. Introduction; Part I. Analytical Framework: 2. European economic governance and labour politics; 3. A paradigm shift in European integration and labour politics; 4. How to assess the policy orientation of the EU's NEG prescriptions?; 5. Contextualising the EU's NEG prescriptions and research design; Part II. EU Economic Governance in Two Policy Areas: 6. EU governance of employment relations and its discontents; 7. EU governance of public services and its discontents; Part III. EU Economic Governance in Three Sectors: 8. EU governance of transport services and its discontents; 9. EU governance of water services and its discontents; 10. EU governance of healthcare and its discontents; Part IV. Comparative Analysis and Post-Pandemic Developments: 11. Labour politics and the EU's NEG prescriptions across areas and sectors; 12. The EU's shift to a post-Covid NEG regime; 13. The policy orientation of the EU's post-Covid NEG regime; 14. Conclusion; Glossary; References; Index.
