EU Social Policy, Social Partners, and the Rule of Law

The chapter examines the peculiarities of the concept of “rule of law” within EU social policy, focussing, in particular, on the role played by social partners (i.e., trade unions and employers’ organizations) in its development. After a brief analysis of the evolution of EU primary law in the field, the author firstly points out that, during the 1990s, the social partners actively contributed to the improvement of EU social policy, especially through the possibility, provided by the Treaties, to incorporate collective agreements into EU directives. He secondly affirms that the situation completely changed with the EU enlargement to several Central and Eastern countries and the economic and financial crisis that broke out at the end of the 2000s: in this period of time, social policy and the social partners were marginalised, meaning that the EU stopped adopting new directives on labour matters. The final part of the chapter is devoted to the analysis of the so–called “EPSU case”, which was recently decided by both the EU General Court and the EU Court of Justice. According to these judgements, the EU Commission is not obliged to submit to the EU Council the request of the social partners to incorporate collective agreements into EU directives, i.e., it holds discretionary powers in this respect. According to the author, this kind of interpretation is really dangerous, because it paradoxically ends up weakening the social partners in a moment of renewed activism of the EU Commission on social policy.