A nice event will occur in the middle of May : a high level Conference on Social Europe in London. At first sight I thought it was in Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium because the University there is also called UCL.
The level and the ambitious are quite impressive and I hope this will feed our discussions, and why not be the opportunity to have some interviews from some of these experts.
“Terms such as ‘Social Europe’, the ‘European Social Dimension’, ‘European Social Model’, and, more recently, ‘European Social Pact’, have long resided in the political and regulatory lexicon of European integration. But arguably, after reaching a climax in 2000 with the inclusion of a ‘Solidarity’ chapter in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the social profile of the EU has entered a deep period of crisis, one may say a phase of ‘social eurosclerosis’, recently exacerbated by the political responses to the economic downturn and its severe consequences on social and labour standards across the EU.
The status quo is one in which workers once again appear to shoulder most of the risks attendant upon the making and execution of arrangements for the doing of work, and associated with their particular personal work situation in the labour market at large. We define this status quo as one in which a process of de-mutualisation of work related risks is seriously undermining the hard-fought and hard-earned social acquis that national social law, and Social Europe itself, once aspired to provide. And we advocate a reversal of this trend in favour of a process of fair-mutualisation of these risks, so as to disperse them away from workers, and share them more equitably between employers, the state, but also consumers, and society at large.“
Typically, this assessment lead us to realise our webdocumentary on social services of general interest. Back on the road and good luck to the English UCL and Dr Nicola COUNTOURIS…
More info on : http://www.resocialisingeurope.org/
