While for some scholars the Euro crisis dashed the dream of Social Europe, this thought-provoking book proposes a more nuanced assessment, challenging the notion of austerity as the only way forward. Tracing the evolution of the political debate on European social integration and its interplay with the European economic governance after the Euro crisis, it sheds light on the conflict dynamics and political conditions that enabled the progressive shift away from the initial post-crisis EU 'conservative reflex', towards a new European holding environment for flourishing welfare states. This...