Lecture | European Union Seminar
European social policy in neoliberal times: dealing with social issues during and after the Delors years
- Lorenzo Mechi (University of Padova)
- Date
- Friday 8 November 2024
- Time
- Series
- European Union Seminar Series
- Location
-
Herta Mohr
Witte Singel 27A
2311 BG Leiden - Room
- 0.02
European integration opens up many opportunities for individual citizens, but can also create challenges for the welfare systems of European member states. We have all heard the Dutch government’s complaints about having to pay for the education of international students, Spanish government’s complaints about having to care for other countries’ retirees or the German trade unions going out of their way to protect the rights of temporary workers who are not even their members. European integration is famously ‘asymmetric’ – heavy on market-building while leaving the issues of social rights to the member states. Yet social policy has been present in the European treaties from the very start and over time the EU has expanded its influence over the welfare states of its members. In this talk, Lorenzo Mechi from the University of Padova explains how the relationship between Social Europe and the national welfare states evolved over time and how the process of European integration both strengthens and undermines the social rights of European citizens.
About the speaker
Lorenzo Mechi is full professor of History of International Relations at the University of Padova. He has written extensively about the history of international organizations and European integration. Among his most recent works are “Cento anni nell’Organizzazione Internazionale del Lavoro: prospettive storiche e giuridiche sulla partecipazione italiana” (2023, edited with A. Sitzia), and “Free Trade and Social Welfare in Europe. Explorations in the Long 20th Century” (2020, edited with L. Coppolaro).
