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Towards More Resilience for a Social EU – the Constitutionally Conditioned Internal Market
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 November 2017
Abstract
Gap between the EU’s normative commitments to socio-economic justice and the practical workings of its integration project -- Potential for strengthening the social EU by recourse to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – Charter normatively commits EU to a constitutionally conditioned Internal Market – Charter curbs property rights and entrepreneurial freedom specifically for the sake of social rights guarantees – Constructive response to legitimacy dilemmas emerging from cases such as Laval, Viking and AGET Iraklis – Reinstating socially embedded constitutionalism at EU levels as an alternative to relegating social integration to national levels
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Footnotes
Professor of Law, Queen’s University Belfast ([email protected]). This paper profited from reflections with other contributors to D. Schiek et al., EU Social and Labour Rights and EU Internal Market Law (European Parliament 2015), specifically Chris Forde, Liz Oliver, Michael Doherty, Kerstin Ahlberg, Consuelo Chacartegui Javega, discussion at the ETUI’s 2016 NETLEX conference, feedback by Dora Kostakopoulou (on presenting the full concept at the 2016 CES in Philadelphia), by Gordon Anthony, as well as by the referees and editors. The usual disclaimer applies.
References
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45 Text surrounding nn. 15-17.
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47 ECJ 4 June 2009 C-142/05 Åklagaren v Percey Mickelsson (Watercrafts), 10 February 2009 C-11/05 Com v Italy (Trailers).
48 See Joerges, supra n. 34, p. 419-421; for an extended analysis of ordo-liberal thinking, see Tuori, supra n. 11, p. 143-148.
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55 Discussed further below.
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67 The approach differs from Olivier de Schutter’s proposal to provide for an external constitutionalisation of the EU’s social dimension by the European Charter of Social Rights (‘The European Social Charter at the Social Constitution of Europe’, in N. Bruun (ed.), The European Social Charter and Employment Relations (Hart Publishing 2017) p. 11. It shares the common aspiration of constitutionalising the Internal Market, but provides a more optimistic assessment of the Charter with regard to social rights guarantees. Neither is it limited to an observation of the Court’s use of the Charter in its Internal Market case law (see on this N. Nic Shuibhne, ‘Fundamental rights and the framework of internal market adjudication: is the Charter making a difference?’, in P. Koutrakos (ed.), Research Handbook on European Internal Market Law (Edward Elgar 2017) p. 215).
68 Jääskinnen, N., ‘Fundamental Social Rights in the Charter - Are They Rights? Are They Fundamental?’, in S. Peers et al. (eds.), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: A Commentary (Hart 2014) p. 1703-1724 Google Scholar; Lazarus, L. et al., The Evolution of Fundamental Rights, Charters and Case Law (European Parliament 2011)Google Scholar. The contrasting view that economic freedoms and human rights are now co-original (S. de Vries, ‘The Protection of Fundamental Rights within Europe’s Internal Market after Lisbon - An Endeavour for More Harmony’, in S. de Vries et al. (eds.), The Protection of Fundamental Rights in the EU After Lisbon (Hart 2013) p. 57) is not convincing, although it is reflected in the ECJ’s post Lisbon case law (Nic Shuibhne, supra n. 67, p. 234 in particular).
69 See Lazarus et al., supra n. 68, p. 34-37.
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71 Lazarus et al., supra n. 68; Veldman, A. and de Vries, S., ‘Regulation and enforcement of economic freedoms and social rights: a Thorny Distribution of sovereignty’, in T. van den Brink, M. Luchtman and T. Scholten (eds.), Sovereignty in the Shared Legal Order of the EU (Intersentia 2013) p. 65 Google Scholar at p. 91.
72 ECJ 4 July 2013, Case C-233/12, Gardella, para. 39.
73 ECJ 30 April 2014 C-390/12 Pfleger, para. 57.
74 On the parallel application of freedom of establishment and Art. 16 TFEU, see ECJ 13 February 2014, Case C-367/12, Sokoll-Seebacher, para. 22, as well as ECJ 21 December 2016, Case C-201/15 Anonymi Geniki Etairia Tsimenton Iraklis (AGET Iraklis) v Ypourgos Ergasisa Koinonikis Asfalsis kaiKoinoniikis Allilengysi, discussed below.
75 ECJ 22 February 2002, Case C-94/00, Roquette Frères SA para. 22-29, confirmed in ECJ 16 May 2017, C-682/15, Berlioz Investment Fund, para. 51.
76 ECJ 17 December, Case 157/14, Neptune Distribution SNC, para. 67.
77 ECJ 1 March 2011, Case C-239/09, Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL and Others v Conseil des ministres, para. 17.
78 On this see Schiek, supra n. 10, p. 225-227.
79 In summary see Schiek, D., ‘The EU’s socio-economic model(s) and the crisi(e)s - any perspectives?’, in D. Schiek (ed.), The EU Economic and Social Model in the Global Crisis (Ashgate 2013) p. 8-30 Google Scholar.
80 Mutual maximisation is an established principle of constitutional law, inter alia referred to as the optimisation principle (R. Alexy, A Theory of Constitutional Rights (Oxford University Press 2002)) and praktische Konkordanz (M. Schladebach, ‘Praktische Konkordanz als verfassungsrechtliches Kollisionsprinzip’, 53 Der Staat (2014) p. 263).
81 ECJ 18 June 1991, C-260/89, Elliniki Radiophonia Tiléorassi AE and Panellinia Omospondia Syllogon Prossopikou v Dimotiki Etairia Pliroforissis et al. This line of reasoning has been reaffirmed in ECJ 30 April 2014, C-390/12, Pfleger, para. 35-36.
82 Shuibhne, N. Nic, ‘The Court of Justice and fundamental Rights: if margin of appreciation is the solution, what is the problem?’, in O. Mjöll Arnardóttir (ed.), Shifting Centres of Gravity in Human Rights Protection (Routledge 2016) p. 137 Google Scholar at p. 148.
83 Whether this regulation must be brought about by public actors such as the EU or its Member States, or whether scope must be left for social governance is not the theme of this paper. On this see Schiek, supra n. 40.
84 The ‘quartet’ consists of ECJ 17 December 2007, Case C-341/05 Laval un Partneri Ltd v Svenska Byggnadsarbetareförbundet, Svenska Byggnadsarbetareförbundets avdelning 1; ECJ 11 December 2007, Case C-438/05 Viking; ECJ 3 April 2008, Case C-346/06, Rüffert v Land Niedersachsen and ECJ 19 June 2008, Case C-319/06, Commission v Luxembourg. On some follow up cases, which do not revisit the conflict between collective labour rights and economic freedoms pursued here, see Pecinovsky, P., ‘Evolutions in the Social Case Law of the Court of Justice’, 7 European Labour Law Journal (2016) p. 294 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Schiek et al., supra n. 7, p. 41-45.
85 Supra n. 74.
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87 ECJ 12 December 1974, Case 36/74, B.N.O. Walrave and L.J.N. Koch v Association Union cycliste internationale, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Wielren Unie and Federación Española Ciclismo, para. 18.
88 ECJ 9 December 1997, Case C-265/95, COM v France (Strawberries).
89 Orlandini, G., ‘The free movement of goods as a possible “Community” limitation on industrial conflict’, 6 European Law Journal (2000) p. 341 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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93 Directive 96/71/EC of 16 December 1996 concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services, [1996] OJ L 018, 21.01.1997.
94 The ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations expressed concern that Swedish trade unions are barred from taking action in support of their members who work for employers posting them (ILO CEACR, Report 2013, 178); and the potentially deterrent effect of high damages being awarded to employers in cases of infringement of their rights under Art. 49 TFEU by UK courts led to a complaint by the Union and subsequent mentioning of the affair in the report for the ILO (ILO Session 2010, Report III Part I A, p. 209 <www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_123424.pdf> visited 6 October 2017.)
95 ECtHR 12 November 2008, Case No. 34503/97, Demir and Baykara v Turkey and ECtHR 21 April 2009, Case No. 68959/01, Enerji Yapi-Yol Sen v Turkey. The slightly more restrictive ruling ECtHR, 8 April 2014, App No 31045/10 RMT v United Kingdom still maintained the rule that Art. 11 ECHR guarantees the right to collective bargaining and collective industrial action, though it did not hold the restrictive UK legislation on balloting incompatible with Art. 11 ECHR.
96 As here Veldman, A., ‘The Protection of the Fundamental Right to Strike within the Context of the European Internal Market: Implications of the Forthcoming Accession of the EU to the ECHR’, 9(1) Utrecht Law Review (2013) p. 104 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Barnard, C., ‘Article 28: Right of Collective Bargaining and Action’, in S. Peers et al. (eds.), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights - A Commentary (Hart 2014) p. 773 Google Scholar, implied at marginal note 12, and F. Dorssemont, ‘Article 12(1) Freedom of Association’, ibid, p. 341, marginal note 14 (suggesting that ‘the right to take collective action is less stringent under the Charter’ than under the ECHR).
97 This has long been recognised in national law, e.g. for Germany by Bundesarbeitsgericht 10.12.2002 case 1 AZR 96/02.
98 See above, text to nn. 80-83.
99 See Rocca, M., ‘Enemy at the (Flood) Gates. EU Exceptionalism in Recent Tensions with the International Protection of Social Rights’, 7 European Labour Law Journal (2016) p. 52 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on the relevance to rely on the Charter (interpreted in the light of international guarantees of social and labour rights) see Schlachter, M., ‘Stärkung sozialer Rechte durch Grundrechtsschutz im europäischen Mehrebenensystem?’, 54 Europarecht (2016) p. 478 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
100 Supra n. 74; see also M. Markakis, ‘Can Governments Control Mass Layoffs by Employers? Economic Freedoms vs Labour Rights in Case C-201/15 AGET Iraklis’ in this edition of EuConst.
101 The Memorandum of understanding can be accessed at <http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/assistance_eu_ms/greek_loan_facility/pdf/01_mou_20150811_en.pdf>; the report of the Expert Group was delivered in September 2016, and is available at <www.capital.gr/Content/RelatedFiles/68/6898c2f55b6f4348828383f331261304.pdf>; see also the opinion by AG Wahl in the case, who supports his final finding with the necessity to ‘reduce all factors which deter new undertakings from investing’ in ‘times of crisis’ (para. 80).
102 Council Directive 98/59/EC of 20 July 1998 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to collective redundancies (OJ 1998 L 225/16, corrigendum OJ 2007 L 59/84).
103 Para. 44 of the judgment, and 49 of AG Wahl’s Opinion.
104 ECJ 18 July 2013, Case C-426/11, Alemo Herron and Others v Parkwood Leisure Ltd, see Weatherill, S., ‘Use and Abuse of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights: on the improper veneration of freedom of contract’, 10 European Review of Contract Law (2014) p. 157 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prassl, J., ‘Freedom of Contract as a General Principle of EU Law? Transfers of Undertakings and the Protection of Employer Rights in EU Labour Law’, 42 Industrial Law Journal (2013) p. 434 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
105 Art. 63 TFEU was also relied upon, but any impact on investment would only be ancillary to the impact on freedom of establishment and conducting a business (paras. 58-60 of the ruling).
106 See text to nn. 53 and 54.
107 Para. 53 of the judgment, referring to para. 65 of the AG’s Opinion.
108 Para. 54, 55.
109 ECJ 27 January 2000, Case C-190/98, Volker Graf v Filzmoser Maschinenbau GmbH, paras. 24-25.
110 Para. 47 of the judgment.
111 Para. 67 of the judgment, para. 49 of the Opinion, references omitted.
112 Para. 57 of his Opinion.
113 Paras. 71-78.
114 Paras. 73-75.
115 Para. 89.
116 Paras. 96-103.
117 Markakis, supra n. 100).
118 M. Schmitt derives from ECSR case law that only economic difficulties, not a mere change of strategy, can justify collective redundancy, and points to a pending case where the legitimacy of collective dismissal in order to increase profit is questioned (‘Article 24 The Right to Protection in Cases of Termination of Employment’, in N. Bruun (ed.), The European Social Charter and Employment Relation (Bloomsbury 2017) p. 412-438).
119 See Nic Shuibhne, supra n. 67, p. 230-231, with further references.
120 Barnard, C., ‘Restricting Restrictions: Lessons for the EU from the US?’, 68 Cambridge Law Journal (2009) p. 575 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Garben, supra n. 1, p. 35.
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