*** ERIC MARLIER, DAVID NATALI (Eds.): EUROPE 2020. Towards a More Social EU? Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). Work & Society series, No. 69. 2010, 277 pp, €30-50. ISBN 978-90-5201-688-7.
Following on from a conference organised by the European Commission and the most recent Belgian Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, this academic book was written upon the Commission's request and finished at midnight on 31 December 2010. It remains perfectly up-to-date however, in these days of crisis as Europeans, including the inhabitants of Greece, Portugal and Spain, of course, but also many others throughout the European Union, are relegated to the economic gutters with no hope of a job. Objectively, this cannot fail to raise the question that was so easily ignored by some in the past, namely what's become of social Europe? How is it going to meet the target, now more urgent and pressing than ever before of 'lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and exclusion,' as promised by EU heads of state when they endorsed the EUROPE 2020 Strategy in 2010? In these days of economic and budget turmoil, it would be a good idea for political leaders to remember that social turmoil that is ignored could prove to be deeply destabilising for democracy and deadly for the European project that began sixty years ago amidst the ruins of the Second World War, one of the causes of which was the Wall Street crash of 1929.
This book is a kind of toolbox of essays explaining that the worst case scenario can be avoided, in other words that Social Europe can become a tangible reality in daily life for the most vulnerable people of Europe and is becoming more effective than hitherto. As the authors explain in the introduction, 'the main focus of the book is the role that EU coordination and cooperation in the social field should or at least could potentially play in the new EU governance framework.' To this end, the authors pay particular attention to the strengths and weaknesses of the 'Social Open Method of Coordination' which was for more than ten years the engine and instrument of the Lisbon Strategy. They aim to ensure that the lessons are learnt so the same mistakes are not made in the future. They set out ideas on how coordination and cooperation in social affairs can be arranged under the EUROPE 2020 Strategy by focussing on the inherent risks and opportunities. It then makes suggestions about how to boost coordination and cooperation 'in the socio-economic context marked by the crisis.' The crisis has got worse since the book was written, which makes the suggestions even more valuable. It also suggests how the various instruments available can be improved at EU, national and sub-national level, setting out ideas about 'how to address the current patchwork of social policies.'
Among the ideas set forth, there is the suggestion by Prof. Maurizio Ferrera of Milan University that the social agenda focus on three priorities, namely implementation of the Lisbon Strategy's 'Horizontal Social Clause,' clarifying the Social Protocol and making it operational and then urgently introducing 'social complements' to the Single Market based on the recommendations in the Monti Report. David Natali of Forli University, who works for the European Social Observatory, says that defining a more ambitious strategy for the European Union budget is a sine qua non to help make Social Europe credible. Other authors examine the challenges of poverty, which have to be dealt with if the EU is not to totally lose the public opinion battle. Who would wonder that the latter point is the subject of one of recommendations that are the icing on the cake of this fine book?
Michel Theys
*** KLAUS KAPUY: The Social Security Position of Irregular Migrant Workers. New insights from national social security law and international law. Intersentia (31 Groenstraat, B-2640 Mortsel. Tel: (32-3) 6801550 - Fax: 6587121 - Email: mail@intersentia.be - Internet: http://www.intersentia.com ). "Ius Commune Europaeum" series, No. 97. 2011, 749 pp, €99, £94, $139. ISBN 978-1-78068-030-9.
How should countries deal with irregular migrant worker (in other words workers from other countries who do not have residence or work permits) confronted by social risk? For example, what should countries do about illegal aliens unable to work after an accident at work? Should the worker be treated like legal workers and be provided with income replacement benefits, medical benefits and labour-market reintegration measures? Or should the worker be refused benefits because he or she does not have the right paperwork be it a work permit or residence permit? In this book, Klaus Kapuy provides scientifically chiselled answer to these legal questions in this book, written as part of a doctoral thesis for Belgium's Catholic University of Leuven. The thesis is published in the new series Ius Commune Europaeum, and is part of an international, multidisciplinary research programme on Cross-Border Welfare States, in which researchers from the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam explore the relationship between immigration, social security and integration in order to assist national and European legislators in making informed choices concerning the legal position of migrants in social security systems. This meticulous, painstaking research by Klaus Kapuy will certainly achieve this. He compares and contrasts the way irregular migrant workers are treated in terms of social security compared with 'undeclared local workers, making suggestions about the way the former should be recognised under social security law. In the first section of the book, the author analyses the international and supranational legal framework for these two categories of worker, going on to examine the social security status for both categories in Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada. In the third part of the book, he draws lessons from the comparison of the different statutes of illegal workers in different countries, comparing them with locals working 'off the cards.' On the basis of these lessons, the author tries to determine what he feels would be the best way of dealing with illegal immigrant workers under social security law.
(PBo)
*** OLAF WEDDIGE: Measuring Public Pension Liabilities in the European Union. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). Sozialökonomische Schriften series, No. 42. 2011, 300 pp, €55-90. ISBN 978-3-631-60273-7.
Few people these days can fail to be aware that demographic change is jeopardising the public pension systems of the most developed countries, particularly in Europe, explains the author of this book in the introduction, where increases in life expectancy and the mass of post-war baby boomers reaching retirement age, along with the falling birth rate since the 1970s has led to an explosive cocktail for current and future pensioners. Hence this economic study, which scientifically measures public pensions liabilities for households up until the present day, liabilities that impact on savings. Olaf Weddige, researcher at the Centre for Generational Contracts at Freiburg im Breisgau University, also looks at the impact of demographic change on pensions and future pensions contributions, examining the staying power of pension schemes in the light of the present value of future pension payments compared with the present value of future contributions. This book will delight experts.
(PBo)
*** BRIGIT TOEBES, METTE HARTLEV, AART HENDRIKS, JANNE ROTHMAR HERRMANN (Ed.): Health and Human Rights in Europe. Intersentia (see above). 2012, 310 pp, €69, £66, $133. ISBN 978-94-000-0151-0.
On the legal front, human rights and healthcare issues intermesh far more widely than one might imagine and this clearly has an impact on politics, as is shown by this book by academic experts from four northern European countries (the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and Norway) who start by looking at these matters in detail in terms of how these inextricably connected issues are dealt with by two European organisations, firstly the Council of Europe and then the European Union. In terms of the EU, the question is examined in the light of freedom of movement for services (cross-border healthcare), individuals (medical staff) and goods, be they pharmaceuticals, blood, cells or tissue, the latter requiring certain safety standards. The second part of the book is by other authors, who explore various questions of interest to both domains, like the right to healthcare, patients' rights, reproductive health and the ever controversial questions of euthanasia and physician-aided suicide. The final part of the book examines in turn vulnerable groups, healthcare inequalities and the social determinants of healthcare, drawing up a balance sheet of challenges to be dealt with and listing recommendations to this end.
(PBo)
*** AUGUST ÖSTERLE (Ed.): Long-term Care in Central and South Eastern Europe. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2011, 242 pp, €48-40. ISBN 978-3-631-61689-5
Population ageing is a question that is now on the agenda of most countries in Europe. One reason why the age hierarchy has become such a major concern is because it influences heathcare pricing policy. This book edited by August Österle talks about healthcare in Central and South-Eastern Europe. He is a professor of social policy at the economics faculty of the Business University of Vienna, but also lectures at Corvinus University in Budapest. His university colleagues provide an analysis of the problem, which along with other socio-economic changes will require changes to be made to healthcare policy to ensure it remains viable in the long-term. In the book, the authors compare and contrast the situation in eight countries, namely Austria, Croatia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, with a separate chapter on each, illustrated by case studies and tables. The authors compaer life expectancy compared with Western European countries and the way that the lower life expectancy in Central and South-Eastern European countries means that there are fewer old people as a proportion of the population. At the start of the 1990's, life expectancy at birth in Central and Eastern Europe was five years less for women and seven years less for men than in Western European nations. During this period, life expectancy rose significantly in Central and Eastern Europe, however, but signficant differences remain. In 2007, life expectancy at birth was 69 for men from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia and 71 for women from all four countries, whereas for an Italian or Swede it was 79 for men and women, 83 for Swedish women and 84 for Italian women. Czechs, Croats and Slovenians have almost caught up with Western Europe in terms of life expectancy. The book looks at the common demographic factors for Central and South-Eastern Europe, along with how long-term health care is organised and funded. The role of the family, civil society, the private sector and the State in long-term heatlhcare is also studied. The book includs a comparative study of some two dozen pages in which Prof. Österle sketches out future prospects for long-term healthcare policy in Central and South-Eastern Europe.
(MDV)
*** European Journal of Social Security. Intersentia (see above). 2012, Volume 14, No. 1,61 pp. Annual subscription: €145, £138, $203.
A lecturer at the Centre for Legal Studies in Welfare and EU Market Integration of Copenhagen University, Andrea Faeh has written a fascinating essay for this issue on the role of medicines in treating orphan diseases. She takes as her starting point the fact that although the European Union is at pains to ensure that orphan medicines are developed, there is no denying that they are not necessarily very effective. Why not? Because where orphan medicines even exist, the patient cannot always get hold of them because decisions about their price (often very high) and the proportion of the cost that will be reimbursed to the patient are taken at national level. Her article tries to establish a framework to provide a limited amount of medicines to treat patients suffering from rare diseases and to this end, she examines the provision of the EU Directive on patients rights in connection with Member State cooperation on healthcare through the prism of 'solidarity (understood as mutual cooperation' in order to deal with failings in the system that aims to 'guarantee the patient access to the product in a timely and equitable manner.' Along with the usual sections, this issue also contains an article establishing 'a typology of the gender dimensions of social policies.'
(MT)