The Lisbon Treaty and Social Europe

On 1 December 2009 the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force. Although often described as primarily technical, it significantly amended the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and the old EC Treaty (now the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, TFEU). The authors' aim in this book is to explore what the Treaty means for social law and social policy at the European level. The first part of the book on the general framework looks - at a time of financial crisis - for new foundations for Europe's Social market economy, questions the balance between fundamental social rights and economic freedoms, analyses the role of the now binding Charter of Fundamental Rights, maps the potential impact of the horizontal clauses on social policy and addresses the possibilities for social partners to enlarge their role in labour law and industrial relations.

The second part, on the social framework of the Treaty, focuses on the development of the Union's competences. In it the authors evaluate the consequences of the new general framework on social competences, analyse the evolution of the principle of subsidiarity and its impact in the new Treaty, look at the coordination of economic policies in the light of fundamental rights, and analyse the adoption in the Treaty of a new architecture for services of general interest.

Auteur

Niklas Bruun is Professor of Private Law at the University of Helsinki. He is the Director of the research programme Regulating Markets and Labour (ReMarkLab), Stockholm University, and member of the Centre of Excellence in the Foundations of European Law and Polity, University of Helsinki.
Klaus Lörcher is former Legal Adviser to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and former Legal Secretary of the Civil Service Tribunal of the European Union.
Isabelle Schömann is senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).
They are all members of the Transnational Trade Union Rights Experts Network of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).

Contenu

Part I: The General Framework or Primacy of the Social Dimension (Principles)

1. The Lisbon Treaty, the Viking and Laval Judgments and the Financial Crisis: In Search of New Foundations for Europe's 'Social Market Economy'
   Simon Deakin
2. Values and Objectives
   Filip Dorssemont
3. The Lisbon Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
   Csilla Kollonay-Lehoczky, Klaus Lörcher and Isabelle Schömann
4. How the Horizontal Social Clause can be made to Work: The Lessons of Gender Mainstreaming
   Pascale Vielle
5. The Role of the Social Partners in the Lisbon Treaty
   Bruno Veneziani
   Part II: The Social Framework or Substance of the Social Dimension (Instruments)
6. Social Competences
   Klaus Lörcher
7. The Principle of Subsidiarity in the Lisbon Treaty
   Thomas Blanke
8. Economic Governance of the EU Crisis and its Social Policy Implications
   Niklas Bruun
9. Services of General Interest and the Treaty of Lisbon
   Antoine Jacobs
   Conclusions: Concerning the Lisbon Treaty and Social Europe: A Complex Relationship that has only just started to Evolve
   Appendices: Recommendations by the Transnational Trade Union Rights (TTUR) Expert Group to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on the effective application of Article 152 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)