The crisis - and the EU’s response to it - have posed a major challenge to the European social model. Trade unions have obviously been highly critical of what the EU has done but concerns have been expressed by a number of other key players, not least Jean-Claude Juncker, the new President of the Commission. In his opening speech to the European Parliament, he said: "The measures taken during the crisis can be compared to repairing a burning plane whilst flying. They were successful overall. Yet mistakes were made. There was a lack of social fairness. Democratic legitimacy suffered as many new instruments had to be created outside the legal framework of the European Union."
Together Catherine Barnard (Cambridge), Geert de Baere (Cambridge and now Leuven) and Frank Vandenbroucke (Leuven) have organised a two day conference on 24-25 September to examine the challenges posed by the crisis to the European Social Model (ESM) and, more specifically to focus on what can be done going forward. The conference brings together a wide range of policymakers and academics in the field and has been funded by CELS, Trinity College and CUP.
The event was supported by the Centre for European Legal Studies.