This book offers a much-needed analysis of how the European Union (EU) has affected welfare state reforms in the Member States most severely hit by the 2008 economic crisis. Bringing together leading European social policy researchers, it shows that the EU's responses to the sovereign debt crisis have changed the nature of EU intervention into domestic welfare states, with an enhanced focus on fiscal consolidation, increased surveillance and enforcement of EU measures. The authors demonstrate how this represents an unprecedented degree of EU involvement in domestic social and labour market policies. Readers will also discover how greater demands to attain balanced budgets have been institutionalized, leading to tensions with the EU's social investment strategy. This highly informative edited collection will engage students, social policy practitioners and researchers, scholars of the welfare state and political scientists.

Autorentext
Caroline de la Porte is Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. 
Elke Heins is Lecturer in Social Policy at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction: Is the EU more involved in welfare state reform following the sovereign debt crisis?; Caroline de la Porte and Elke Heins.- Chapter 2. A new era of European Integration? Governance of labour market and social policy since the sovereign debt crisis; Caroline de la Porte and Elke Heins.- Chapter 3. A framework for social investment strategies: Integrating generational, life course and gender perspectives in the EU social investment strategy; Jon Kvist.- Chapter 4. 'Pushing against and open door': Reinforcing the neo-liberal policy paradigm in Ireland and the impact of EU intrusion; Fiona Dukelow.- Chapter 5. National social and labour market policy reforms in the shadow of EU bailout conditionality: The cases of Greece and Portugal; Sotiria Theodoropoulou.- Chapter 6. From austerity to permanent strain? The EU and welfare state reform in Italy and Spain; Emmanuele Pavolini, Margarita León, Ana M. Guillén and Ugo Ascoli.- Chapter 7. Conditionality by other means: EU involvement in Italy's structural reforms in the sovereign debt crisis; Stefano Sacchi.- Chapter 8. Still the sound of silence? Towards a new phase in the Europeanization of welfare state policies in France; Patrick Hassenteufel and Bruno Palier.- Chapter 9. Depleted European social models following the crisis: Towards a brighter future?; Elke Heins and Caroline de la Porte **