Periodic Reporting for period 4 - EUSOL (Solidarity in the European Union)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-03-01 bis 2024-02-29
Publics across Europe increasingly feel that the EU undermines the problem-solving capacities of its member states and aggravates political, social, and economic inequality both within and across them. For many years, scholars have wondered whether resolving the EU’s ‘democratic deficit’ might increase the EU’s legitimacy in the eyes of its constituent peoples. Many have also queried what ideal democratic institutions might look like at the EU level. Yet very few have asked what is, in many ways, a more fundamental question—a question, moreover, that underlies and reinforces the growing malaise among European publics: What principles of justice and solidarity, if any, ought to apply at the EU level? Is the EU unjust? We are familiar with debates on social justice and solidarity at the domestic and global level. But what about principles for an inter-, supra-, trans-national institution such as the EU? EUSOL seeks to provide philosophically sophisticated, empirically informed answers to these questions across a broad range of issues that currently divide the EU.
Economic Governance
What principles of justice and solidarity should guide evaluation (and reform) of Economic and Monetary Union? What principles, for example, should inform our reflection on proposals for new fiscal and budgetary powers at the EU level? What principles should we use to judge the relations between debtors and creditors? From the point of view of justice, should reform of EMU promote greater cross-national transfers and risk-sharing or prevent moral hazard and free-riding? Or, alternatively, what principles might help us in determining the mix of risk-reduction and risk-sharing? Similarly, what normative principles, e.g. of equality of opportunity, should govern an open, transnational labour market?
Social Policy
What principles of justice and solidarity should guide the formation of social policy and regulation at the EU level? Should the EU, as a matter of justice, aim to become a Social Union? If so, what kind? Should the EU aim to reduce cross-national inequalities among member states? Among individuals? Why or why not? What kinds of inequality (opportunity, power, income, wealth, status…)? What normative principles might underlie particular mixes of social policy (e.g. regarding social investment, unemployment insurance, basic income) at the EU level?
Citizenship
What principles of justice and solidarity should govern our understanding of EU citizenship? What reasons of justice and solidarity, if any, are there for maintaining open borders within the EU? (Would it be an injustice if borders were re-established between member states?) Do these reasons also support opening borders to third countries? What’s the difference? Are there normatively relevant differences between second- and third-country nationals with respect to admission, residence, access to social benefits and advantages, and equal treatment? Should a normative ideal of EU citizenship extend beyond free movement rights to, for example, include more significant social rights? If so, what kind?
Refugees
What principles of justice and solidarity should help us in shaping refugee policy in the EU? Should there be more burden-sharing? What counts as a ‘burden’, and what would be a fair allocation of costs among member states, refugees, and citizens? What role should freedom and equality of opportunity play in assessing whether refugees should be able to choose their country of destination once granted asylum? Is it an injustice to restrict mobility of refugees?
Enlargement
What principles of justice and solidarity should aid us in evaluating enlargement and exit from the union? Are there duties to enlarge? Duties to stay in? What principles ought to guide ‘divorce’ proceedings?
Further, and more differentiated, integration
Are there reasons of justice for moving toward a more closely-knit federation? Empirically, what would need to be the case for us to conclude that justice-based reasons to roll back the EU outweigh those in favour of its continued existence? What about more differentiated integration, where integration is deepened in some areas, but rolled back in others?
Economic Governance
What principles of justice and solidarity should guide evaluation (and reform) of Economic and Monetary Union? What principles, for example, should inform our reflection on proposals for new fiscal and budgetary powers at the EU level? What principles should we use to judge the relations between debtors and creditors? From the point of view of justice, should reform of EMU promote greater cross-national transfers and risk-sharing or prevent moral hazard and free-riding? Or, alternatively, what principles might help us in determining the mix of risk-reduction and risk-sharing? Similarly, what normative principles, e.g. of equality of opportunity, should govern an open, transnational labour market?
Social Policy
What principles of justice and solidarity should guide the formation of social policy and regulation at the EU level? Should the EU, as a matter of justice, aim to become a Social Union? If so, what kind? Should the EU aim to reduce cross-national inequalities among member states? Among individuals? Why or why not? What kinds of inequality (opportunity, power, income, wealth, status…)? What normative principles might underlie particular mixes of social policy (e.g. regarding social investment, unemployment insurance, basic income) at the EU level?
Citizenship
What principles of justice and solidarity should govern our understanding of EU citizenship? What reasons of justice and solidarity, if any, are there for maintaining open borders within the EU? (Would it be an injustice if borders were re-established between member states?) Do these reasons also support opening borders to third countries? What’s the difference? Are there normatively relevant differences between second- and third-country nationals with respect to admission, residence, access to social benefits and advantages, and equal treatment? Should a normative ideal of EU citizenship extend beyond free movement rights to, for example, include more significant social rights? If so, what kind?
Refugees
What principles of justice and solidarity should help us in shaping refugee policy in the EU? Should there be more burden-sharing? What counts as a ‘burden’, and what would be a fair allocation of costs among member states, refugees, and citizens? What role should freedom and equality of opportunity play in assessing whether refugees should be able to choose their country of destination once granted asylum? Is it an injustice to restrict mobility of refugees?
Enlargement
What principles of justice and solidarity should aid us in evaluating enlargement and exit from the union? Are there duties to enlarge? Duties to stay in? What principles ought to guide ‘divorce’ proceedings?
Further, and more differentiated, integration
Are there reasons of justice for moving toward a more closely-knit federation? Empirically, what would need to be the case for us to conclude that justice-based reasons to roll back the EU outweigh those in favour of its continued existence? What about more differentiated integration, where integration is deepened in some areas, but rolled back in others?
The project has advanced in the first reporting period according to plan, and passed several major milestones in the period Sept 2018-Feb 2021.
The workshop ’Solidarity: Its Nature and Value’ took place in May 2019 and was a great success. The manuscript for the papers collected in that workshop has been successfully edited and sent for review with Oxford University Press. The volume, if the review is successful, will appear in their popular Virtues series.
During 2019-2020, we also launched the 'Conversations for the Future of Europe', a seminar series that brought together scholars and researchers across all the Departments of the EUI to discuss the future of the EU with two speakers, each of which presented a forward-looking policy proposal for general discussion. Both occasions were invaluable for creating networks of scholars working on a topic—social justice in the EU—that has only recently received growing attention. The Conversations series continued until Summer 2020 (continuing via Zoom webinars despite the recent COVID crisis).
The conference ‘Is Europe Unjust?—which brought together, in September 2019, 18 experts across different fields to discuss principles for evaluating whether, and to what degree, the EU advances or sets back social justice within Europe—was a great success. The conference was so successful that we have decided to pursue two major publications arising from that conference instead of just one. A first group of papers has been accepted for a special issue in the Review of Social Economy; the review process is almost complete, and the special issue should be out by 2022. The other, more normatively oriented, group of papers is currently under review as a special issue at the European Journal of Philosophy (the review process has been somewhat delayed by the EJP, however, due to COVID—we are hoping the reviews will be completed over the next few months).
PI’s manuscript on Solidarity: Nature, Value, and Grounds has been accepted for publication by Manchester University Press in the prestigious Critical Powers Series. Six prominent international scholars have agreed to provide responses to the lead essay. The monograph and responses should be out in early 2022.
The workshop ’Solidarity: Its Nature and Value’ took place in May 2019 and was a great success. The manuscript for the papers collected in that workshop has been successfully edited and sent for review with Oxford University Press. The volume, if the review is successful, will appear in their popular Virtues series.
During 2019-2020, we also launched the 'Conversations for the Future of Europe', a seminar series that brought together scholars and researchers across all the Departments of the EUI to discuss the future of the EU with two speakers, each of which presented a forward-looking policy proposal for general discussion. Both occasions were invaluable for creating networks of scholars working on a topic—social justice in the EU—that has only recently received growing attention. The Conversations series continued until Summer 2020 (continuing via Zoom webinars despite the recent COVID crisis).
The conference ‘Is Europe Unjust?—which brought together, in September 2019, 18 experts across different fields to discuss principles for evaluating whether, and to what degree, the EU advances or sets back social justice within Europe—was a great success. The conference was so successful that we have decided to pursue two major publications arising from that conference instead of just one. A first group of papers has been accepted for a special issue in the Review of Social Economy; the review process is almost complete, and the special issue should be out by 2022. The other, more normatively oriented, group of papers is currently under review as a special issue at the European Journal of Philosophy (the review process has been somewhat delayed by the EJP, however, due to COVID—we are hoping the reviews will be completed over the next few months).
PI’s manuscript on Solidarity: Nature, Value, and Grounds has been accepted for publication by Manchester University Press in the prestigious Critical Powers Series. Six prominent international scholars have agreed to provide responses to the lead essay. The monograph and responses should be out in early 2022.
Many components of the project have yet to be completed. In June, 2021, EUSOL will host a major interdisciplinary workshop at KCL on 'Solidarity in EU Refugee and Asylum Policy', which will consider the Commission's New Migration Pact from both ethical and legal perspectives. In May, 2021, EUSOL will host a symposium on Joao Labareda's recently published _Towards a Just Europe_, which is an important recent contribution to understanding what principles of solidarity and justice ought to apply to the EU. In 2021-2022, PI will be completing a manuscript for a monograph entitled _The Bounds of Solidarity: Principles of Justice for the European Union_. This will develop and synthesize the results of EUSOL into a single-authored monograph.