Long Reads: The Death of Social Europe w/ Aurelie Dianara

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🗓️ 21 April 2024

⏱️ 65 minutes

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Summary

Earlier this year, the French politician Jacques Delors died at the age of 98. Delors is best remembered for his time as president of the European Commission from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. During that time, the European Community became the European Union. The Delors Commission also laid the groundwork for the single currency through the Maastricht Treaty. One of the main ideas associated with Delors was the concept of a “social Europe.”

Our guest today is Aurelie Dianara. She’s a research fellow at the University of Évry in Paris. Her book Social Europe, the Road not Taken: The Left and European Integration in the Long 1970s was published in 2022.

As Aurelie explains, the idea of “social Europe” originated in the crisis of global capitalism during the 1970s. When it was taken up by Delors and his Commission, it lost its radical connotations and eventually became an alibi for the neoliberal framework of the Eurozone.

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, you're very welcome to Long Reed.
0:03.0	The Jacobin Podcast, where we look in depth of political topics and thinkers.
0:07.0	My name's Daniel Finn, and the features editor here at Jacobin,
0:11.0	and I'll be presenting the show.
0:14.0	Earlier this year the French politician Jacques Delors died at the age of 98.
0:20.0	Delors is best remembered for his time as president of the European Commission from the mid-1980s to the mid-90s.
0:28.0	During that time, the European Community became the European Union.
0:32.0	The Delor Commission also laid the groundwork for the single currency through the Maastricht Treaty.
0:38.0	One of the main ideas associated with Delore was the concept of a social Europe.
0:44.8	Our guest today is Orly Dianara.
0:47.5	She's a research fellow at the University of Avery in Paris.
0:51.9	Her book Social Europe, The Road Not Taken, The Left in European Integration
0:56.9	in the long 1970s was published in 2022. As Orly explains, the idea of Social Europe originated in the crisis of global capitalism during the 1970s.
1:10.0	When it was taken up by Delor in his Commission, it lost its radical connotations and eventually became an alibi for the neoliberal framework of the Eurozone.
1:20.0	Before people began talking about the idea of a social Europe in the 1970s, what was the nature of the European project actually existing as it had developed from the Treaty of Rome onwards up to the entry of
1:35.1	states like Britain, Ireland and Denmark in the mid 1970s.
1:39.6	Post-war European integration is generally presented in the official discourse of the European Union and in mainstream political and media discourse as very much a peace project after the Second World War, a project of a few visionary
1:57.1	fathers of Europe like Jean Monnet, Alche de Gaspé, Kona Radaad an hour and so on. But in fact it was really mostly an economic
2:07.6	project that was led by conservative, Christian democratic and liberal forces, right?
2:14.0	And socialist forces were really marginal in the first years of this integration process,
2:21.0	and communist forces were plainly absent from European institutions until the late 60s and early 70s.
2:29.0	So the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957 and it established the European Economic Community,
	...

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