From Eastern enlargement to Brexit – And beyond
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Author | Catherine Jacqueson,Tim Goedemé |
| DOI | 10.1177/1388262721995269 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
Editorial
From Eastern enlargement to
Brexit – And beyond
Tim Goedem´
e
University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Catherine Jacqueson
WELMA Research Centre, Law Faculty, Copenhagen University, Denmark
We are very pleased and honoured to succeed Frans Pennings and Mike Adler as Editors of the
European Journal of Social Security (EJSS). When Mike and Frans created the Journal more than
twenty years ago, the single currency had just been launched and the European Union had formally
entered into accession negotiations with six countries from Eastern and Central Europe. This was
just the start of a new round of enlargement of the EU, with 10 new Member States joining in 2004
(including Malta and Cyprus), followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, and Croatia in 2013.
Enlargement was largely considered a success, and a reason for optimism about the future (e.g.
European Commission, 2006). In their first editorial, Mike and Frans (1999) noted the severe
challenges the addition of countries with much lower GDP per capita and living standards would
imply for economic and social policy at the EU level. As a result, they expected that enlargement
would ‘generate pressure to promote a specifically European social policy, and thereby to trans-
form the EU from an economic union into an economic and social union’ (Adler and Pennings,
1999: 3-4). These expectations for an enhanced role of social policy at the EU level were combined
with an acknowledgement of pressures in many Member States to cut back on the generosity of
tax-benefit systems due to ‘[g]reatly increased life expectancy, fundamental changes in the labour
market, new social risks [ ...], and rising public expectations’ (Adler and Pennings, 1999: 4).
A year after the publication of the first issue of EJSS, the Lisbon Strategy, aimed at sustainable
economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, was adopted. The fol-
lowing year, the project for a Constitution for the EU was launched and one of its ambitions was to
create a more social face for the Union and ensure a better protection of fundamental rights. These
developments coincided with the introduction of the Laeken indicators (now ‘EU social indica-
tors’) as well as the application of the Open Method of Coordination in the field of social poverty
and social exclusion, and later also in the field of pensions, health care and personal care. This was
Corresponding author:
CatherineJacqueson, WELMA ResearchCentre, Law Faculty, CopenhagenUniversity, Njalsgade76, DK-2300 CopenhagenS.,
Denmark.
E-mail: ccj@jur.ku.dk
European Journal of Social Security
2021, Vol. 23(1) 3–6
ªThe Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/1388262721995269
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