*** GIJSBERT VONK (Editor): Cross-Border Welfare State. Immigration, Socialo Security and Integration. Intersentia (31 Groenstraat, B-2640 Mortsel, Belgique. Tel: (32-3) 6801550 - fax: 6587121 - Email: mail@intersentia.be - Internet: http://www.intersentia.be ). "Social Europe Series" series, No 29. 2012, 260 pp. €59, £56, $83. ISBN 978-1-78068-096-5.
This book is the high point of a research programme jointly carried out since 2006 by the faculties of law at the Free University of Amsterdam and Groningen and the Catholic University of Leuven. It is both an end and a… beginning. It is the end because it provides a report consisting of nine contributions from the “Access Denied Conference”, which underpins this meticulous series of research projects. It is a beginning, above all, because the same actors from the Amsterdam meeting last March use this occasion to set up a new international research network centring around the development of alternative policies for the social protection of irregular migrant workers. This is an extremely well focused scientific enterprise containing nothing that is superfluous, given that the problem is so blatant and becoming increasingly important …
Decade after decade, the relationship between immigration, social security and civil integration is proving increasingly complex. The crisis over recent months has not made anything easier, quite the contrary. Professor Gijsbert Vonk and Sarah van Walsum confirm this in their introductory chapter. They point out that the prospect of having to take in even more immigrants in Europe (particularly in an effort to respond to the “increasing demands for labour in our ageing societies”) will also be likely to fan the flames of fear. Some commentators subsequently consider that it will no longer be possible to maintain the high level of social protection provided by the welfare state. Others believe that immigration will only negatively impact on the cultural identity of host countries. This kind of apprehension is translated into pressure exerted on the political world at both national and European level by, “making it more difficult for immigrants to access the social security system and by increasing the civic integration requirements, an attempt is being made to make the country less attractive for some immigrants groups”. Many immigrants, even those who have been in their host countries for a long time, continue to find it difficult to integrate into their host societies due to their precarious socio-economic status. This is borne out by the low levels of education and income, high unemployment rates and linguistic ghettos. All of a sudden, social security is needed but in very contradictory ways, “On the one hand income maintenance prevents a further deterioration of the socio-economic position of migrants while on the other hand long term benefit dependency may hamper integration in their country of residence”.
Ultimately, pressure exerted through immigration and integration policies also affect immigrants because sometimes they decide to return to their countries of origin, which subsequently means they risk losing their rights in terms of social security, which they have acquired in their host countries…
These are some of the different kinds of problems that occur, including the human dramas, that are often concealed behind them and which are examined from a legal point of view in five different parts of this book. In the first part, Gijsbert Vonk and Sarah van Walsum present some of the major outcomes of the research projects carried out within the framework of the Cross-Border Welfare Programme. They also seek to provide a number of answers to the following fundamental question, “Knowing that the exclusion of certain immigrants from social security is legitimate from the point of view of national policies and interests or even from the point of view of the logics of the social security system itself, what alternative strategies can be developed in order to address their social protection without undermining these policies, interests and logics?”
The different possible ways of answering this question include codifying minimum obligations arising from human rights standards to providing temporary income support and credits to migrants who co-operate with the return to their countries of origin. It is crucial for political decision-makers in the member states and the European Union to provide some sort of answer to this key question facing society.
Pierre Bouvier
*** LISA WADDINGTON, GERARD QUINN, EILIONOIR FLYNN (Editors) and: European Yearbook of Disability Law. Volume 3. Intersentia Publishers (see address details attached). 2012, 434 pp. €79, £75, $111. ISBN 978-1-78068-090-3.
This book is written by academic specialists involved in a research programme set up by the Centre for Human Rights at Maastricht University and the Centre for Disability Law and Policy of the National University of Ireland Galway. This volume is the third to provide a very useful examination of the political and legal provisions affecting people with disabilities between September 2010 and January this year. It again focuses on the developments that have occurred within the European Union, although the activities carried out by the Council of Europe and international organisations such as the OECD and non-governmental organisations are also scrutinised. Many of the contributions relate to relations with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which led to the adoption in December 2010 of a Code of Conduct between the Council, member state and the Commission (this text is published in the very comprehensive annexes included in the book). Professor Mark Priestley (University of Leeds), Scientific Director of the Academic Network of European Disability Experts, examines the potential contribution of the Open Method of Coordination for furthering cooperation and sharing best practices in disability policy. The legal expert, Alexander Hoefmans, looks at the new institutional architecture required for implementing and efficiently applying the United Nations Convention and the designation of one or more independent bodies within the EU in this connection. The researcher, Jan C. M. Willems (University of Maastricht), analyses the interaction between this Convention and the Convention on children's rights. He subsequently locates this issue within the broader field of human rights. Five other authors look at the transatlantic dialogue on eAccessibility, which they believe has helped to develop coherent international norms. In addition to this more precise theme, all the difference legislative and regulatory innovations that have occurred in the context of the Union and disability (particularly the rights granted to people suffering from a disability when they are travelling) are examined, as well as recent case law in this area. The book is subsequently a very useful reference guide!
(MT)
*** MAITE SAN GIORGI: The Human Right to Equal Access to Health Care. Intersentia Publishing (see address details attached). "School of Human Rights Research Series", No. 53. 2012, 247 pp. €79, £75, $111. ISBN 978-1-78068-081-1.
This remarkable book is the continuation of a PhD thesis in health sciences in 2005 at the Institute of Health Policy and Management and Erasmus University of Rotterdam. It examines this specific human right in the context of the right to equal access to health care. It provides a particularly interesting insight into the legal instruments implemented to ensure that this right is respected. In the first half of the book, the author dedicates no fewer than four chapters in an attempt to reply to the following question, “What is the human right to equal access to health care and how is it enshrined in human rights law?” Maité San Giorgi looks at this issue from the principle of equality and non-discrimination and argues that this is vital for the justiciability of the human right to equal access to health care.
It is precisely this aspect on which the second part of the book focuses. The author provides a number of scientific responses to the following question, “What arguments are brought forward with regard to the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights and how are these rights, including the human right to health care, adjudicated in practice by the various judicial and quasi-judicial human rights bodies?” this distinction is very often practised in the field of civil and political rights: the right to life, a fair trial, outlawing of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment etc.… and economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to education, food and decent accommodation. Why does this distinction exist? Because the former are negative rights that ban states from contravening these rights, while the latter are positive rights that involve states in active measures and therefore costs… the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights proves to be a more complex question. Nonetheless, a number of bridges have been built and several adjudicatory human rights bodies have dealt with elements of economic, social and cultural rights via civil and political rights within “an integrated approach” that the author examines in detail. In the last part of the book, the author examines the way in which the justiciability of equal access to health care could evolve in the future in the context of the European Committee of Social Rights, Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
(PBo)
*** PETRA EBERMANN: Patents as Protection of Traditional Medical Knowledge? A Law and Economics Analysis. Intersentia Publishers (see address attached). “European Studies in Law and Economics” series, No. 10. 2012, 197 pp. €59, £56, $83. ISBN 978-1-78068-073-6.
It was when she was working as a research assistant at the Institute of Law and Economics at the University of Hamburg, where she had just completed her Ph.D. thesis that Petra Ebermann drew together all the different facts and figures that would enable her to write this book on the protection of traditional medical knowledge. This knowledge is now recognised as being beneficial to humanity because in certain cases it provides alternatives to conventional medicine, such as when this proves inappropriate for tackling certain diseases when specific bacteria is resistant to antibodies. This same knowledge and savoir-faire have suddenly begun to whet the appetite of certain economic interests, particularly the pharmaceutical industry, to the extent that it is now included in the concept of “biopiracy”. The book looks at how different interests can be reconciled without encroaching on each other. To this end, Petra Ebermann looks at the application of intellectual property rights in connection with the protection of traditional medical knowledge and she subsequently provides a number of answers to the question of whether they always efficiently promote the objectives of the Convention on Biodiversity. Her economic analysis of law enables her to see to what extent the balance between implementation of the objectives in this Convention in the perspective of intellectual copyright and restrictions requires a balanced patent or not. In the second part of the book, she specifically analyses the patents applied in the Union and the US, as well as their implications for traditional medical knowledge and innovative follow-up, their impact on underlying economic principles and opposing interests. In conclusion, she provides a number of different perspectives for improving this situation.
(PBo)
*** European Journal of Social Security. Intersentia (see address details attached). 2012, volume 14, No. 2, 91 pp. Annual subscription: €145, £138, $203 (students: €45, £43, $63).
This publication of the specialist journal on Social Security contains a contribution on the specific situation affecting employees with a disability in the Netherlands. Another article focuses on factors in Finland that encourage workers at the end of their careers to retire or on the contrary, pursue their professional careers. This issue focuses on the issue of Welfare as a Means for Political Stability. In the context of Sweden's tradition of Social Security, three sociologists confirm that the social reforms introduced there over the past few decades aimed to respond to political and social instability. The three authors explain that this country has not been immune to this phenomenon and the deep political crisis that triggers welfare reforms.
(MT)
*** Demography, active ageing and pensions. Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission (Publications Office. Internet: http.//ec.europa.eu/social/publications). “Guide to Social Europe”, No. 3. 2012, 92 pp. ISBN 978-92-79-25010-1.
This publication by DG Employment contains a preface by Commissioner László Andor. In it, he provides a useful examination of three different sources of concern and succinctly explains what is occurring with the demographic revolution in Europe and the implications this has for the economy, society and jobs. He also looks at the question of active ageing and the pensions issue. The point of view of the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament is also briefly looked at.
(MT)
*** Agenda social. Commission (fax: (32-2) 2962393 - Internet: http://ec.europa.eu/social/contact ). July 2012, No. 30, 28 pp. In this issue, this information brochure produced by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion contains a “special feature” focusing on the external aspects of social affairs. It examines socially related problems and contains articles on the effects of Union enlargement, the diplomacy developing in this area, working standards promoted through trade and the rights of European citizens, etc.
(MT)