Inequality is a major issue today in public debates, especially since 2008 and the beginning of the financial, economic and social crises. In the European Union (EU) , the crisis exacerbates a tendency observed since the 2000s: income inequality is growing in most countries, including in Northern European states, which are recognised as the most egalitarian societies in the world (OECD 2011, 2015).
Public and academic debates on inequality in the EU, like elsewhere in the world, are mostly focused on national territories. This can simply be explained by the fact that social issues have traditionally been linked to the nation state: the development and acceptance of social solidarity within a community are strongly linked to the development and the acceptance of a national state. Today, we see significant data regarding inequality in the richest countries, including most of Europe. Some contributions provide insight as to why nation states must limit socioeconomic inequalities (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009; Stiglitz 2012), propose explanations of the phenomenon (Milanovic 2011; Piketty 2014) or develop economic and political propositions to limit it (Atkinson 2015).
The aim of this book is to develop a multiscalar approach with a focus on inequality in the EU within and between countries, and in some contributions, comparisons with other European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The book is concerned with both vertical inequality , that is, inequality between those with high incomes and low incomes, and horizontal inequality, that is to say inequality between groups by nationality, age, ethnicity or gender. Our objective is twofold. Firstly, the book describes the social situation in the EU with a focus on inequality in a multidimensional approach, which permits comparisons between national populations. Inequalities are discussed through different perspectives and indicators such as income and economic inequalities, poverty and social exclusion, categorical inequalities and social classes and educational inequalities.1 Secondly, it proposes political and prospective analyses about the role of the EU institutions in the social domain, and with regard to social and gender inequality. In the first part of this introduction, we explain why we decided to edit a collective book focused on inequality at the EU level. We present the different contributions in a second part.
Since the beginning of the European project , the institutions of the European Economic Community and then of the EU have had access to an ever-increasing number of tools in the field of social issues. According to Falkner (2010), European institutions play a social role through three general dimensions. There is firstly a regulatory role through social directives concerning working conditions, especially regarding health and safety, and equal treatment (wage equality between men and women, for example). The Treaty of Amsterdam (1996) gave the Commission the ability to expand this regulatory role to all European citizens, and not only to workers. Secondly, the regional policy, with its structural funds—European Social Fund, Cohesion Fund and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)—provides a distributive role to the European Commission . Finally, this last institution has incentive tools with the open method of coordination, and more recently the European Semester , which, among other effects, leads Member States to pursue common social objectives. It seemed possible at least, particularly during Jacques Delors ’ term as the president of European Commission, to apply the idea of Social Europe in the real world, with EU institutions playing a major role in the social field, including limiting social inequalities among European populations, and then to observe the development of solidarity in the EU territory.
The situation has changed at least since the beginning of the crisis. While the EU’s prerogatives in the social domain are the same, the trend appears negative now, to the extent that many specialists claim that the idea, the cosmopolitan dream of Social Europe, is dead (Crespy and Menz 2015; Lechevalier and Wielgohs 2015). This claim is based on many signs. Firstly, after a period of socioeconomic convergence between European countries, in part thanks to the cohesion policy , since the crisis we can observe a stagnation of socioeconomic disparities. Secondly, and maybe more fundamentally, the period seems quite unfavourable to the development of strong solidarity among European people. Before the crisis, Maurizio Ferrera claimed that there is ‘a tension, an uneasiness in linking or reconciling “solidarity” with “Europe”’ (2005). The situation may be growing worse: both the EU and a certain idea of solidarity are currently being called into questioned like never before. With the growing importance of the European Council, we observe a return to national interests conflicting with European interests once states are inside the EU project: this can be illustrated not only by ‘Brexit ’, but also by the persistent political divergence between Member States regarding the situation in Greece or the reception of refugees and other migrants. In parallel, national social systems are slowly being dismantled in all European countries, especially in the name of reduction of public debts.
Why then a book focused on European inequality now? Despite the current situation, discussing social issues at the EU level makes sense for at least two reasons. On the one hand, the different contributions to the book demonstrate that the EU has still a real role in the social field and against inequality, even if this role is currently declining. On the other hand, we strongly believe that the EU should play a more pronounced role in social issues in the future. In addition to the heterogeneity of the social situations in the different EU countries, all the national societies face complementary difficulties, especially with the crisis: the rise of public debt and difficulties financing and preserving social security schemes , a rise in unemployment and precarious jobs, and then the risk of social exclusion and poverty. The EU can help its members find an answer to those shared social difficulties.
It is our role as social scientists to discuss these problems. We began this work with the creation of a European network named Inequality Watch a few years ago, by bringing together European research centres and civil associations focused on inequality at the national level. By gathering the contributions of recognised specialists of socioeconomic inequality and European processes from distinct scientific disciplines and several European countries, our desire with this book is to reconcile the analysis of social processes with an accurate assessment of public policies affecting vulnerable populations and regional discrepancies in the EU. While the first part of the book highlights the social situation in the EU in line with the consequences of the financial crisis, the second part addresses the role of the EU and its institutions to cope with this challenge. Despite the social and cultural heterogeneity of EU Member States, the first part shows that most populations and their institutions witness a similar phenomenon of growing inequality. It could reinforce the idea of an ambitious Social Europe able to limit inequality, or at least help its Member States do so. The goal of the second part is specifically to discuss the social tools already in use at the EU level and their limits, but also to reflect on the legitimacy of such an idea. Our aim is not to describe or explain the recent developments of Social Europe but to think theoretically and ethically about the current and future role of the EU in the social field and more specifically in the fight against inequality. How does the EU deal with inequality today? What should be the role of EU institutions regarding the challenge of reducing inequality?
The theoretical advances regarding inequality have been both significant and varied and have opened up renewed forms of understanding and explanation. The most important theories and analyses of contemporary social inequalities adopt a multidimensional perspective (Therborn 2006). The different dimensions of inequality —income, poverty, social exclusion, education and social mobility—are linked and interconnected. Likewise, it is useful to compare poverty and social exclusion levels between countries to underline the standards of living of different national populations. This is why we propose in the first part of the book an analysis of the different di...