Promoting solidarity in the European Union

Contents:

1. Promoting European Solidarity: Between Rhetoric and Reality? - Yuri Borgmann-Prebil & Malcolm Ross
2. Solidarity: A New Constitutional Paradigm for the EU? - Malcolm Ross
3. Mission Impossible? Limits and Perils of Institutionalizing Post-National Social Policy - Wolfram Lamping
4. Solidarity and the Commission's 'Renewed Social Agenda' - Catherine Barnard
5. The Price of Letting Courts Value Solidarity: The Judicial Role in Liberalizing Welfare - Gareth Davies
6. When Patients Exit, What Happens to Solidarity? - Clemens M. Rieder
7. EU Environmental Solidarity and the Ecological Consumer: Towards a Republican Citizenship - Chris Hilson
8. Irregular Migrants: Beyond the Limits of Solidarity? - Mark Bell
9. A Certain Degree of Solidarity? Free Movement of Persons and Access to Social Protection in the Case Law of the European Court of Justice - Stefano Giubboni
10. Age Discrimination in Law and Policy: How the Equal Treatment Directive Affects National Welfare States - Deborah Mabbett
11. Promoting the Multi-Pillar Model? The EU and the Development of Funded Pension Schemes - Karen Anderson
12. How to Govern for Solidarity? An Introduction to Policy Learning in the Context of Open Methods of Coordinating Education Policies in the European Union - Bettina Lange & Nafsika Alexiadou
13. Relating Territorial Cohesion, Solidarity, and Spatial Justice - Jane Holder & Antonia Layard
The European Commission has claimed that 'Solidarity is part of how European society works...'. But how are we to understand solidarity, and what are its implications to Government policy? Promoting Solidarity in the European Union addresses the question of what solidarity might mean today and its relevance to the purposes of the European Union and the way it functions.

Is solidarity just a slogan or can it have meaningful legal and policy content? Contributions from leading scholars in law, politics, and sociology are brought together in this volume to discuss an idea that is coming under fresh scrutiny at a time when the EU's direction following the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty is hotly debated. The book engages with both the content and limitations of solidarity as a concept in political and legal debate, and its application to specific fields such as migration, education and pensions policies.

The book provides a thoughtful and provocative analysis of the power and potential of solidarity, applying a sceptical and rigorous assessment of the conditions necessary for it to make a difference to the European political and legal space at a time when traditional manifestations of national solidarity (e.g. in health care) are perceived to be under threat from EU market liberalization policies. A number of chapters consider whether an EU concept of solidarity is possible and how that might affect the balance between market and social priorities for the Union's future.

If the EU is to be more than just a market, promoting solidarity as a value and a principle has a key role. This rich collection of essays explores how solidarity might fulfil its status as a core value for the Union.