Social welfare and EU law

Abstract:

This work arises from a conference on social welfare and EU law held in Cambridge in June 2003, and brings together contributions from different areas of European integration studies to consider how Community membership is changing the shape of welfare provision and its legal environment across Europe.

The work is comprised of twelve contributions. The first offers background analysis of the development of the welfare state. Chapter two looks at the impact of Economic and Monetary Union upon national welfare societies and chapter three looks at the private sector and the influence of competition law. Chapter four explores the role played by state aid. Chapter five examines the provision of cross-border healthcare in the context of EC law whilst chapter seven looks specifically at the impact of EU law on English healthcare law. Chapter six considers the competence of the EC to regulate medical services. The eighth chapter examines the influence of the principle of solidarity in determining citizens’ rights to healthcare across the EU. Chapter nine explores the extent to which the solidarity principle and the concept of European citizenship will shape the welfare policies of Member States in the years ahead, then chapter ten considers the same principle in the context of education and student mobility. Chapter eleven examines the new Regulation 883/2004 on the co-ordination of social security systems to determine which categories of persons and benefits are still excluded from the co-ordination programme. The final chapter explores the evolving role of the European Court and its impact upon national welfare systems and the development of an EU social policy through the open method of co-ordination.

The collection will interest scholars, students, researchers and policy makers engaged in the fields of European social welfare and European integration as well as law practitioners operating in these areas.

Michael Dougan is Professor of European Law at the University of Liverpool. Eleanor Spaventa is a Lecturer in Law at Birmingham University.