Round Table. From Lisbon to Porto: taking stock of developments in EU social policy: Social Europe 2.0? New prospects after the Porto Social Summit

The sequence of crises in the 2010s entirely changed the socio-economic context that had inspired the Lisbon strategy in the year 2000. EU policy veered towards austerity and social policy became an ‘adjustment variable’. Since the mid-2010s, however, a slow process of rebalancing has gained ground, culminating in the adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) in 2017. The Porto Summit has confirmed the centrality of the Pillar for a new Social Europe. To appreciate fully the EPSR’s potential, it is necessary to focus not only on binding measures but also on EU incentives and actions aimed at promoting (and partially funding) concrete access to social rights. Especially through the ‘guarantee’ instrument, the EU can play a bigger and more effective role in the sphere of social citizenship, without stumbling into the political obstacles associated with hard law.

The Gift of The Nation

In order to question the modernist common sense of mainstream sociology, epitomised today by the charge of methodological nationalism, this article offers an overall reading of Marcel Mauss’s The Nation. Conceived during the Great War and written mainly in 1920, Mauss’s work radically re-examined both the nation and nationalism from a regenerated sociological viewpoint centered on the relations between societies. Distinguishing between partial relations of exchange and total relations of encounter, Mauss came to discover the gift as a total social fact, seeing it as the traditional unconscious spring of the federative dynamics that had to be reactivated in Europe to associate its nations in a great ‘Inter-nation’ and avoid the risk of a new total war. The Nation, by reviving the original ambition of Émile Durkheim’s sociology to be a way rethinking and reshaping the concepts and institutions of modernity, helps us explore the contradictions and pathologies involved in the concept and history of the nation, in a situation currently marked by the return of nationalism and the quest for a social Europe.

The Contours of New Social and Political Сleavages in the EU Countries

Using Lipset and Rokkan's concept of political cleavages as a base, the authors identify the contours of new social and political divisions in EU countries which have been exacerbated by a series of crises. New divisions are caused by two kinds of factors: socio-economic and value-based. The authors characterize the growing gap between the center (metropolis) and the periphery (province cities and towns). The article also examines the processes of erosion of the middle class and the formation of a new working class in European countries, which go beyond the classical opposition of employers and employees. The article outlines the impact of these splits on value orientations of EU citizens and the possible emergence of new political conflicts. The authors conclude that new divides can lead to protest mobilization in the European Union, a vivid example of which was the "yellow vest" movement and demonstrations against lockdown measures during the COVID pandemic. Another consequence of those divisions will be a change in the electorate structure and the transformation of the party landscape. The article concludes with a brief analysis of the significance of new social cleavages for further development of European integration. It is noted that during the coronavirus crisis citizens' demand for a "Social Europe" has increased.

Voting for a social Europe? European solidarity and voting behaviour in the 2019 European elections

This article investigates whether public preferences for European solidarity are associated with vote choices in the 2019 European elections. After multiple crises, the politicisation of European Union affairs has increased, polarising voters and parties between those favouring the redistribution of risks across member states and those prioritising national responsibility in coping with the consequences of the crises. We expect pro-solidarity voters to be more prone to vote for green and radical-left parties and less prone to vote for conservative and radical-right parties. Testing these hypotheses in 10 European Union countries with original survey data, we find that green and radical-left parties profited from European solidarity voting only in some countries, while being pro-solidarity reduced the likelihood of voting for both moderate and radical-right parties in each sample country.

European Social Democracy in the Post-COVID Period: Importance of Update

This article presents an analysis of the process of changing the approach of the European social democratic parties to the social policy and employment policy of the European Union in the post-crisis period. In particular, the role of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and its group Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (EP) in the development and implementation of a new strategy for strengthening the social sphere, presented by the European Commission headed by J.-C. Juncker at the initiative of the representatives of the PES in it, including the initiative for the creation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). Various options for coping with the consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic proposed by the PES, as well as the new strategy for the transition to a social Europe put forward by it, are considered.

Designing "Virtual Social Europe Days"—An International Collaborative Seminar across Closed Borders

"Social Europe Days” is a collaborative four-day international seminar held yearly near Brussels, Belgium, by a network of ten European universities from eight different countries. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seminar had to be offered virtually and redesigned. The final design included synchronous and asynchronous activities, informal and formal interactions, and a focus on empathy for the existential problems faced by participating students and faculty during the pandemic. This article describes the design challenges, the design choices and decisions that led to the virtual seminar design, and reflections based on lead faculty notes, member checking, and student evaluations.

The Ordinary Legislative Procedure in a Post-Brexit EU: The Case of Social Europe

This article assesses the political and power dynamics of the Ordinarily Legislative Procedure (OLP) in social Europe and the likely impact of the UK’s departure in the field for future integration. It provides a detailed analysis of the OLP in social Europe during two recent periods of integration in the field—the first Barroso Commission (2004–2009) and the Juncker Commission (2014–2019). It finds the dynamics of the OLP have shifted from intergovernmental deadlock during the Barroso Commission to the characteristics of a new intergovernmental core state power during the Juncker Commission, even though the policy area is not a core state power <em>per se</em>. Despite the use of qualified majority voting policy agreements can only be achieved when there is near unanimity support in the Council, the Commission remains a neutral broker, and the Parliament shifts its position to that of the Council. As a result, continued opposition to integration in social Europe by Northern and Eastern Members means the removal of UK political agency will have only a marginal impact on the slow and piecemeal approach to integration in the field.