The Implementation of the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights
| Date | 01 September 1990 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1990.tb01831.x |
| Published date | 01 September 1990 |
| Author | Bob Hepple |
The Implementation
of
the Community Charter
of
Fundamental Social Rights
Bob
Hepple*
The Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers’ provides a frame-
work of principle for the future development of a European ‘social dimension,’ a ‘social
space,’* possibly even a ‘social State.’3 The achievement of any of these grand designs
depends not only upon political will, but also upon the methods now chosen to implement
the twelve categories of ‘fundamental social rights’ set out
in
the Charter, both at Community
level and at national level. The implementation of the Charter presents a unique opportunity
to ‘re-regulate’ European labour markets in ways which are significantly different both
from the current model of ‘deregulation’ in certain countries (notably the
UK),
and also
from the pre-existing welfare-state and labour law sy~tems.~ If the process of ‘imple-
mentation’ is effective, one may expect the ‘fundamental social rights’ themselves to have
a dynamic character, moving from their present anaemic state towards a full-blooded system
of
individual rights within a framework of freedom of association, collective bargaining
and industrial democracy.
From this viewpoint, the most crucial part of the Charter is Part
11,
which envisages
implementation at both national and Community levels. Article
27
casts responsibility on
the Member States to guarantee the fundamental social rights
in
the Charter and to implement
the social measures ‘indispensable to the smooth operation of the internal market as part
of a strategy of economic and social cohesion.
’
The main methods prescribed by Article 27
are ‘legislative measures or collective agreements,
’
‘in accordance with national practices.
’
The preamble refers, as well, to ‘existing practices at the various appropriate levels’ requiring
‘in many spheres the active involvement of the two sides of industry.’
Article
28
invites the Commission to submit initiatives ‘which fall within its powers’
with a view to the adoption of legal instruments for effective implementation, as and when
the internal market is completed, ‘of those rights which come within the Community’s
area of competence.
’
The Commission responded promptly to this invitation by publishing
*Professor of English Law in the University of London at University College.
1
The text of the Charter is analysed by Brian Bercusson, p
624,
above. See generally, Commission of
the European Communities Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs,
Social
Europe
1/90
(Brussels,
1990).
which contains the texts of the Charter, background material and
comments.
Jacques Delors, President of the EC Commission, Bull EC
2 (1986)
p
12,
referring to
‘l’espace sociale
Europeenne.
’
There is a vast and rapidly growing literature on these aims, and the Charter. See
in
particular, the special
‘1992
Issue’ of the
Comparative Labor
Law
Joumal
(Summer
1990,
forthcoming); Wolfgang Daubler,
Sozialstaut EG? Die Andere Dimension des Binnenmarktes
(Gutersloh: Verlag Bertlesman Stiftung,
1989);
Eliane Vogel-Polsky,
Europe Sociale
1992:
Illusion, Alibi
ou
Realirk
(Brussels:
forthcoming,
1990);
Lammy
Betten (ed),
The Future
of
European Social
Policy
(Deventer: Kluwer,
1989);
Chris Brewster and Paul
Teague,
European Community Social Policy:
its
impact on
the
UK
(London: IPM,
1989);
Lord Wedderbum,
lke Social Charter, European company and employment rights: an outline aged
(London: Institute
of Employment Rights,
1990);
Bob
Hepple, ‘European Communities,’
in
Blanpah
(ed)
Comparative Labour
Law
and
Industrial Relations
(Deventer: Kluwer, 4th ed,
1990),
and Part
1A
-
301
et seq
in
Encyclopedia
of
Labour Relations
Law
(London: Sweet
&
Maxwell,
1990),
and for earlier developments, Hepple, ‘The
Crisis in EEC Labour Law,’
(1987) 16
IIJ
77,
and Hepple and Byre, ‘EEC Labour Law in the United
Kingdom
-
a new approach,’
(1989) 18
IIJ
129.
The theoretical arguments are discussed in an important article by Ulrich Muckenberger and Simon
Deakin,
‘From deregulation to a European floor of rights,’
(1989) 3
Zeitschrifrfur auslandisches und internutionales
Arbeits- und Sozialrecht
153.
2
3
4
The Modem
Law
Review
53:s
September
1990 0026-7961
643
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