Book review: A European Social Union after the Crisis
| Author | Effrosyni Bakirtzi |
| DOI | 10.1177/1388262719836795 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
European Journal of Social Security 21(1)
Justice and the academic reactions to these. A number of chapters overlap because they analyse the
same case law in a similar way. Nevertheless, the book does provide added value since, in a
number of contributions, a wider perspective is used, notably with regard to fundamental social
rights and to the discussion of this issue in the social and political sciences. As a result, this book
puts the technical legal discussion of the interpretation of the applicable provisions in primary and
secondary EU law into a broader framework. It therefore offers much food for reflection on the
influence of the EU in terms of the definition of the solidarity circles of national welfare States. In
addition, the book is excellently documented with extensive references to other research and other
literature. Thus, this is a real ‘research book’ which certainly contributes to the scholarly debate on
these issues.
Author biography
Herwig Verschueren is a Professor of International and European Labour and Social Security
Law at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He is also a visiting professor at the University of
Brussels (VUB), Belgium.
Frank Vandenbroucke, Catherine Barnard and Geert De Baere (eds.), A European Social Union after
the Crisis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017, 522 pp., ISBN: 978 1 108 41578 1
(Hardback)
Reviewed by: Effrosyni Bakirtzi, Graduate Research School on Social Human Rights, University of Kassel and
University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Germany
DOI: 10.1177/1388262719836795
Following the debates on the necessity of an active social dimension for the European integration
project within the context of the economic, social and political crises affecting Europe, this book
edited by Frank Vandenbroucke (University of Amsterdam), Catherine Barnard (University of
Cambridge) and Geert De Baere (University of Leuven), proposes the development of a European
Social Union that should be differentiated from the term usually invoked, i.e. ‘Social Europe’. The
argument of proceeding beyond a mere ‘Social Europe’ concept is based upon the idea that a
European Social Union would support and guide the development of the national welfare...
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