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Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Involvement of the social partners in economic governance at European level. 2.1. Consultation of European social partners. 2.2. Social partner involvement for the ASGS. 2.3. The role of social partners in the Alert Mechanism Report and the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP). 3. The role of social partners in the Joint Employment Report (JER) within the European Semester. 4. Involvement of the social partners in economic governance at national level. 4.1. National Reform Programmes. 4.2. Involvement of the national partners by the EU Institutions. 5. Latest developments and upcoming reforms. 6. Conclusions.
1. Introduction
EU economic governance is an ever-changing and expanding system, used by the EU to steer the member states’ financial, economic and social policy. It has proven to be a rather controversial method, which often has more actual impact than the at-first-sight soft-law approach of the recommendations implies. This contribution’s intention is not to explain the workings or structure of the European Semester, not to look at its (in the past often negative) impact on social policy. The purpose is to define the theoretical and actual involvement of the social partners at the European and national level in the European semester from a legal perspective. In which way is this involvement legally cemented or based on merely good practices or guidelines? Since the proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights in 2017, the European Semester should no longer have been used as a tool to impose flexible labour markets and decrease employment law and social security protection. Instead, it would be used as an instrument to guide EU Member States to the Walhalla of the Social Pillar. This was made explicit by a significant increase in social country-specific recommendations, promoting social dialogue and collective bargaining, supporting adequate minimum wages and highlighting the importance of decent working conditions. The involvement of social stakeholders, aka the social partners, is a key element in this turnaround. However, the question is whether the EU and the member states are legally obliged to involve the social partners, or that this remains a mere recommendation.