Threats and challenges to the European social dialogue

The constitutionalisation of the European social dialogue by the insertion of Articles 138 and 139 into the EC Treaty appeared to guarantee the social partners their position as a, if not the primary source of European labour law. The history of European labour law recounted in this book advises against complacency. Radical shifts in legal strategy have time and again reflected economic, political and social changes in Europe. The European social dialogue is not immune to these historical mutations.

This chapter examines challenges which have recently emerged. They reflect the institutional conjuncture of a weakened Commission and a Parliament keen to reassert itself in the area of social policy, a political conjuncture of a Council reflecting a conservative coalition of Member States with a deregulatory agenda, and an economic conjuncture of high unemployment, with weakened and defensive national trade unions, inevitably affecting their European organisation, the ETUC, and aggressive employer organisations at both national and European levels.

This conjuncture is not permanent. It was argued that social dialogue has deep roots in the social, economic and political structures of the Member States, making it an integral component of the European social model and the foundation for European labour law. That does not mean that the European social dialogue is beyond challenge. However, as some never tire of reminding us, challenges are also opportunities …