Recently, there have been numerous calls for the development of an EU unemployment insurance policy (compare also the recent temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency [SURE]).
In the context of the eurozone, the most common argument for such a policy is that it is an essential part of monetary union: monetary union without an accompanying fiscal union is inherently fragile. Professor Andrea Sangiovanni argues that such functionalist arguments rely on a set of implicit normative assumptions. Uncovering them allows us to ask: What is the best normative argument for an EU unemployment insurance scheme? Put another way: What does the often mentioned, but little understood, commitment to solidarity require of us as European citizens? Professor Andrea Sangiovanni will outline what kind of EU unemployment insurance solidarity, properly understood, requires of us, putting forward a case for an EU-level instrument designed to reinsure member state schemes. Professor Andrea Sangiovanni will also address whether, why, and to what extent such an unemployment scheme requires the EU to become a transfer union.
Andrea Sangiovanni is Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London. From 2018-2020, he was Professor of Social and Political Theory at the European University Institute, Fiesole. He received his BA and PhD from Harvard University. Before joining KCL, he was a Randall Dillard Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge (2005-2007). His research interests span four areas within moral, political, legal philosophy: the idea of basic equality, the relation between international and domestic social justice (including a special focus on the European Union), human rights, and the relation between practices and principles. He is currently preparing two monographs. The first, for Harvard University Press, is entitled The Bounds of Solidarity: International Justice, Reciprocity, and the European Union. The book defends a conception of social justice for the European Union, which is perhaps the most ambitious — and, at the moment, precarious — project of supra-, trans-, and inter-national solidarity in the world today. I argue that the concept of reciprocity provides a powerful basis on which to construct such a conception, and apply the theory to a number of issue areas, including refugee policy and the free movement of persons, economic and monetary union, and enlargement and exit. This research is supported by a 5-year ERC Consolidator Grant entitled 'Solidarity in Europe’. The second is entitled Solidarity: Its Nature, Grounds, and Value (Manchester University Press). His book, Humanity without Dignity: Moral Equality, Respect, and Human Rights, was recently published by Harvard University Press. Other recent publications include ‘Solidarity as Joint Action’ (Journal of Applied Philosophy), ’The Irrelevance of Coercion, Imposition and Framing to Distributive Justice’ (Philosophy & Public Affairs) and ‘Solidarity in the European Union’ (Oxford Journal of Legal Studies).
Waltraud Schelkle is Professor in Political Economy at LSE European Institute.