Introduction to European Law [Jean Monnet European Course]

This course is designed to be developed in two modules. First, it focuses on the new forms of work organization in the EU, which create the need for reformed employment policies, which are developed according to a planning of priorities for combating unemployment and removing obstacles for vulnerable groups to smooth access to the labor market. In the process, it critically examines whether a) these readjustments create new redistribution policies in the EU Member States, which strengthen both a new developmental social policy and the functioning of social cohesion and b) the upgraded human capital is better utilized in a framework of labor performance linked to autonomous productive participation. Furthermore, the framework and effectiveness of interventions with an integrated form and content in this direction are explored, as well as the possibilities for wider application of specific good practices that emerge through expanded partnerships, which implement joint work programs to achieve the above objectives. In conjunction with the above, a second section, and with a case study of the Greek reality, comments on the symbolic but also the substantive prominence of social policy in the latest revisions of the Constitution of the Hellenic Republic, as well as the formal establishment of the principle of the social state in the Greek legal order, mainly in relation to employment and social protection of citizens. Finally, in this context, the course examines the role of civil society through the involvement of social partners and NGOs, particularly at the executive level of shaping social policy, strengthening employment and social protection and undertaking institutional actions or informal initiatives.