European Social Partners’ Joint Report on the ECJ rulings

Since 2003 a vigorous/hot discussion has been under way on what rights have priority whether economic rights in the internal market or social ones, namely the right for collective action, at the European level. In November 2008 the European Social Partners were called by the European Commission and the French EU Presidency to start joint negotiations and to undertake an analysis of the rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The discussion on the ECJ rulings in the Viking, Laval, Rüffert and Commission vs Luxembourg cases has connection with the trade unions pressure for the Posting of Workers Directive revision. The outcome of the European Social Partners negotiations is a joint report without a single conclusion. Its text provides opinions and arguments of both the employers – BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME and CEEP – and the trade unions – ETUC – in four areas:

• The impacts of the ECJ rulings in the context of the single market;
• The relationship between economic freedoms and fundamental social rights;
• The challenge of respecting the diversity of industrial relations systems;
• The responses to the challenges raised by the ESJ judgements.

In the discussions the employers advocate for superiority of the internal market rules enshrined in the Treaty, refuse revision of the Directive because it sets in a well-balanced way rights of both the enterprises and the employees, recommends better coordination and administrative cooperation among member states, consider the ECJ rulings as legitimate and bringing certainty of interpretation, because these concede for the first time the right for a collective action providing for its limits at the same time (Viking).

European Social Partners’ Joint Report on the ECJ rulings [pdf 350 kB]

Marta Blízková
International Organisations and EU Affairs