The European Pillar of Social Rights and the Quest for EU Social Sustainability
| Date | 01 April 2020 |
| Published date | 01 April 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663919829199 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The European Pillar of
Social Rights and the Quest
for EU Social Sustainability
Konstantinos Alexandris Polomarkakis
University of Lincoln Law School, UK
Abstract
This article sets out to review the policies introduced by the European Pillar of Social
Rights and its accompanying initiatives in light of their contribution to European Union
(EU) social sustainability, particularly in comparison with their predecessors. The balance
between economic and social policies at EU level has long been tipped in favour of the
economic, leaving an atrophic social side a servant of market-based objectives. Social
sustainability appeared absent from the European vocabulary, at least in substantive
terms, something exacerbated by the effects of the 2008 crisis. The criticisms that
ensued led to a resurgence of interest in establishing a socially sustainable Union,
crystallized in the Pillar and its accompanying initiatives. Despite their potential, further
commitment by the Member States as well as more concrete and legally binding pro-
posals are necessary, for without them this social resurgence might once again surrender
to economic hegemony.
Keywords
European Pillar of Social Rights, European Union, Social Europe, social integration, social
sustainability
Introduction
Sustainability as a term is, and has been, en vogue in policy-drafting and making roughly
during the last three decades, ever since the 1987 Report of the World Commission on
Environment and Development entitled ‘Our Common Future’ (WCED, 1987).
Corresponding author:
Konstantinos Alexandris Polomarkakis, University of Lincoln Law School, Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN6 7TS, UK.
Email: kalexandris@lincoln.ac.uk
Social & Legal Studies
2020, Vol. 29(2) 183–200
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0964663919829199
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Sustainability, or sustainable development, were thus inextricably linked to environmen-
tal issues and concerns, trying to strike a balance between the environment, the economy
and society. This article departs from the tight confines of the popular environment-
centred theoretical understanding of sustainability, choosing to focus instead on its social
side, to analyse it emancipated from environmental considerations. Apart from environ-
mental deterioration, 21st century brought also a decrease in labour and welfare stan-
dards worldwide, through the ‘race to the bottom’ mantra, which was only exacerbated
during the global economic and financial crisis (Singh and Zammit, 2004). The crisis
escalated the issue from one largely affecting the development of comprehensive pro-
tection mechanisms in the Global South to a universal one, dictating labo ur market
deregulation and social policy diluti on in countries with traditionally high le vels of
welfare provision and employment protection (Heyes and Lewis, 2013).
The European Union (EU) did not weather the crisis unscathed. To the contrary, it
represents a textbook example of constant deregulation and welfare retrenchment in
many of its crisis-hit Member States, up until recently known for their models of social
protection. This led to allegations that the so-called European Social Model is dead, or at
least burdensome for economic competitiveness in the current globalized setting
(Vaughan-Whitehead, 2015). For economists, the EU Member States were, simply put,
not economically sustainable enough, and dismantl ing the social acquis could boost
economic activity and ease overstretched public finances (Clauwaert and Scho¨mann,
2012). Social protection was not worthy of conservation, being the easy target to suc-
cumb when confronted with economic pressure. Yet this position should not come as a
surprise. The balance between economic and social policies at EU level has long been
skewed in favour of the former, with the latter adopted predominantly if they were
perceived as instrumental in advancing the internal market.
The development of social laws and policies at EU level, formally known as the social
acquis, was incremental to say the least, and even normatively significant reforms, such
as the introduction of the social market economy paradigm with the Lisbon Treaty, were
largely side-lined. Creating a sustainable Social Europe appeared for the most part absent
from the vocabulary of the key stakeholders, at least in substantive terms. For example,
since the mid-1990s, instead of entrenching social sustainability through law and policy-
making, more subdued and rather political methods were promoted, such as the Open
Method of Coordination (OMC), which to date has produced questionable results (de la
Porte, 2002). Unlike well-trodden areas of EU policymaking, environmental policy
included, social policy as a whole relied for the most part on setting minimum standards,
something that hindered upwards convergence at EU level (Scharpf, 2002).
EU social sustainability has, thus, been underdeveloped compared to both its envi-
ronmental and economic counterparts. This ‘welfare neglect’ was further exacerbated
through the response of the EU institutions to the effects of the 2008 crisis in some of the
Member States, as manifested in the reforms included in the bailout packages and which
had dubious results (Hemerijck, 2016). The criticisms that ensued led to a resurgence of
interest in establishing a socially sustainable Union, crystallized in the newly introduced
European Pillar of Social Rights and its accompanying initiatives. To the extent that
these promote hard-law measures in tandem with soft-law mechanisms, this signals a
departure from the almost exclusively soft-law approach of the OMC. The Pillar pushes
184 Social & Legal Studies 29(2)
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