Social progress clause
A clause on social progress, usually shortened social progress clause called, above all required to ensure that social protection - and labor rights in the law of the European Union have the same status at least as the freedom to provide services and the single market .
The social rights of workers are understood as fundamental rights .
This demand is represented in particular by the European Trade Union Confederation in the context of the discussion on the Lisbon Treaty .
Specifically, an additional protocol or a solemn declaration is called for “that provisions on freedom of movement are to be interpreted taking into account fundamental rights, which should also be asserted within the broader concept of social progress ” ( European Trade Union Confederation : ETUC opinion on the judgments of the ECJ in the cases of Viking and Laval (PDF; 101 kB), March 4, 2008, p. 4.).
The following formulation was proposed:
“No regulation of the Treaties and especially not the fundamental freedoms or competition rules should take precedence over fundamental social rights and social progress. In the event of a conflict, fundamental social rights should be given priority.
The interpretation of economic freedoms must not be as if they entitle companies to use them to circumvent and evade national labor and social rights or to use them for social dumping.
The economic freedoms set out in the treaties are to be interpreted in such a way that they do not constitute an obstacle to the exercise of the fundamental social rights recognized by the Member States and by Community / Union law, including the right to negotiate, conclude and enforce collective agreements and the right to industrial action seize.
Accordingly, the independence of the social partners in the exercise of these fundamental rights for social interests and for the protection of workers should not be impaired.
The protection of workers requires an interpretation that recognizes the trade unions and employees the right
- to work for the protection of the existing standards and for the improvement of the living and working conditions of workers in the Union beyond the existing (minimum) standards,
- especially in the fight against unfair competition over wages and working conditions as well
- in demanding equal treatment of employees, regardless of their nationality or other reasons. "
In Germany, this demand is supported in particular by politicians from the SPD and the Die Linke party .
The SPD and DIE LINKE integrated the demand for the progress clause into their program for the 2009 European elections.
In the European Parliament , however, the clear majority of all SPD MPs, including the group leader of the European Social Democrats Martin Schulz , had previously voted against motions from the left-wing GUE / NGL group to include the call for a social progress clause in EU primary law in the so-called Andersson report .
After the European elections, the SPD also voted in the Bundestag on March 17, 2011 against a motion by the LINK, which calls on the federal government to campaign for the introduction of the social progress clause; the Greens abstained.
Individual evidence
- ^ Andersson report . Retrieved on November 3, 2019 ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Application: Against Poverty and Social Exclusion - Include Social Progress Clause in EU Agreements (PDF) German Bundestag. Retrieved November 3, 2019.