200 likes | 217 Views
Explore the intricate welfare regimes in EU countries, focusing on social policy, aid dynamics, and economic development perspectives. Learn about the diversity of welfare systems and future challenges.
E N D
Social Policy and Aid, Trade and Economic Development of the EU
Welfare state: • General objective: improve human living conditions • Actions: state-sponsored programmes. • Concrete purposes: • Preventing/Alleviating poverty • Redistributing income across the life course • Offset special needs of groups with disables people and families
In the EU the nation-state remains responsible for providing and financing social services and social transfers. • Welfare regimes: • Government can establish specialized public agencies • Governement outsources provisions to private organizations • Tax financed social trasfers account for between 10-20% of GDP of EU Member countries • Gross vs disposable income
Three types of welfare: • Liberal • Celebrate property/ market • Liberal regimes impose a line between self-reliant citizens and those that depend on the State (Puritanism) • Education-Health care: marked by the class division • Social security/Social housing: protect the poor • Flexible labour market • Governements: trade-off between pressure for increased social expenditure and low level of tax tolerance.
Three types of welfare: • Conservative • Capitalism is welcomed as an engine of economic growth but social transfers are used to compensate market losers and preserve social cohesion. • Interventions are managed by representatives of employers and workers. • Social democratic regimes: social insurance and social partnership are in an egalitarian scheme of social citizenship. • The State plays a primary role in providing citizens with highest suitable degree of income secuity and high quality services.
Three types of welfare: • Social democratic system • Social transfers are designed to foster social solidarity based on commitment to the ideal of pepole’s home. • All citizens are entitled to a tax-financed basic retirement pension with earning related pensions (unitary national insurance scheme).
What’s about EU ? • Differences across EU regimes: very complicated to harmonize • Countries with generous social standards are less prone to scale down their workers’ entitlements to social benefits • Publishing some EU Directives...
Future perspectives: • Families are increasingly fragile • Motherhood and employment status • Social exclusion • Retirement scheme
EU position in the international network: • Historical ‘heritage’ : France and UK have a network of low/medium income economies • Aids: • Recipients accepts for a variety of reasons • Scope: develop a project or addressed to an agency
Lines of interventions: • Complementarieties with other programmes implemented by the EU countries. • Coordination between EU and Member States • Coherence and consistency of all external activity • Mainstream objectives: • Promotion of Human Rights, gender equality, environment... • Infrastructures • Preferential Trade Agreements.