The Social Impact of the Eurozone Crisis on European Integration: Emerging Social Frontiers in the European Union?
The Social Impact of the Eurozone Crisis on European Integration: Emerging Social Frontiers in the European Union?

Summary/Abstract: The Eurozone crisis has had crucial social implications for the member states and citizens of the European Union turning the financial and economic crisis into a social crisis. The divergences between the core and the periphery countries, the Northern and Southern member states in the general sense, have notably increased during the crisis period bringing the risk of the emergence of social frontiers within the EU. Although the debates in Europe have focused on further integration as a solution to the crisis, it would be questionable how to achieve this in a Union marked by social frontiers in case of unmanageable divergences. The social indicators deteriorating particularly in the so-called periphery countries pose significant challenges for the attainment of the goals of a socially inclusive and cohesive Europe. Furthermore the social impact of the crisis on the European Union citizens leads to growing pessimism and decreasing trust in both the national political institutions and the European Union bearing the risk of undermining the credibility and legitimacy of the European project. Hence, in order to restore the confidence and promote further integration, the European Union needs to use its full capacity to solve problem of growing social divergences in the process of recovery from the crisis.

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