The first volume, The EU, the Sovereign Debt Crisis and Welfare State Reform, edited by Caroline de la Porte and Elke Heins, analyses how the EU has affected welfare state reforms in the Member States most severely hit by the crisis from various theoretical perspectives. The findings of the individual chapters show that the nature of EU intervention into domestic welfare states has changed, with an enhanced focus on fiscal consolidation, increased surveillance and enforcement of EU measures. Overall, this represents radical alteration of EU integration, whereby the EU is involved in domestic affairs to an unprecedented degree.
The second book, Implementing Social Europe in Times of Crises. Re-established Boundaries of Welfare?, edited by Dorte Martinsen and Hans Vollaard, examines the state of social Europe when EU principles and policies have to be implemented in the Member States while the EU legitimacy crisis and the Great Recession prevail. The volume explores diverse processes, stages and subjects of implementation in a variety of social policies to identify different institutional dynamics and actor behaviours at play. The individual contributions examine the transposition of the patients’ rights directive to the Europeanisation of pension reforms; the role of national parliaments in transposing social Europe; judicial Europeanisation; and the multi-level enforcement of EU decisions.
Both volumes signify a new era of European Integration in the context of the crisis.
