Conference Contribution Details
Mandatory Fields
Stan, S.
Industrial Relations in Europe (IREC) 2018 Conference
NEG and Labour Politics in the Health Care Sector
Leuven, Belgium
Oral Presentation
2018
()
Optional Fields
10-SEP-18
12-SEP-18
Up to the 2008 financial crisis, the rise in EU’s role in healthcare policy-making was mostly the result of market integration, most notably in the area of cross-border care. This largely safe-guarded member states’ competence in that field by eschewing EU’s direct intervention in national healthcare policies to the benefit of indirect, horizontal market constraints (Mossialos et al 2010, Vollard et al 2016). Since the crisis, the development of EU’s New Economic Governance (NEG) has challenged this situation. Indeed, the NEG introduced direct surveillance of and intervention in social policy-making at large, including, more specifically, in the area of healthcare (Azzopardi et al 2015; Greet et al 2016). This paper will look at the manner in which the new economic governance affected healthcare policies and its impact on labour politics in the area of healthcare. It will do so by mapping: 1) the extent, nature and impact of NEG interventions on the provision of services and working conditions in healthcare; 2) the impact of these interventions on the space of action and power resources of trade unions and social movements active in the healthcare sector; and 3) the extent to which NEG interventions offer points of crystallisation for collective action at local, national and European levels.
European Unions ERC Project