"A Regulatory Conundrum: Industrial Relations and the 'Social Dimension'"

Abstract

This chapter portrays the process of regulatory policy-making in the 'social dimension' as an ongoing attempt to resolve this regulatory conundrum. It begins by considering the context from which European level of social and labour market policy has begun to emerge: the actors, competing interests, institutions, pressures and counter-pressures which have simultaneously helped and hindered the construction of the limited regulatory regime that currently constitutes the 'social dimension'. It then proceeds to consider the emergence of an embryonic system of governance in this area in terms of the three essential characteristics of a regime identified in the work of Oran Young: the substantive (the cluster of rights and rules associated with the regime), theprocedural (the forms of decision-making) and the mode of implementation.8 This will be carried out via an examination of the twin 'pillars' of the 'social dimension'. The first (the legislative pillar) which comprises substantive and procedural developments (involving EC legislative acts and treaty arrangements) will be discussed in section two. The second (the social dialogue pillar) which comprises a potentially important second instrument of governance - agreements between the so-called social partners - will be discussed in section three. Section four considers developments since the Maastricht summit of December 1991. The Treaty on European Union attempted, via its Social Protocol and Agreement, to create a new architecture of social and labour market policy-making by reforming the procedural and implementation components of the nascent regime: firstly by eliminating the single Member State veto on a wide range of policy areas; secondly by bridging the legislative and social dialogue pillars to allow for decision-making and implementation via 'collective agreement'; and thirdly, by enhancing the powers of the European Court of Justice to penalise Member State failure to implement directives.

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