A Comprehensive Social Progress Protocol is Needed More Than Ever

Abstract

A social progress protocol has been suggested and demanded as a way of strengthening the protection of fundamental social rights in the EU Treaties. The jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Viking and Laval cases provided the impetus for this suggestion. The financial and economic crisis has increased the need for discussion, clarification and development of fundamental values, principles and rules of EU social policy. In light of the crisis, a social protocol should be designed in a comprehensive way. It should reinforce the position of human rights and it should define the model of the European social market economy. A high level of social protection should be stipulated. The draft of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is an adequate starting point, however, in light of the recent economic and social development a more comprehensive protocol is necessary. Given the different national traditions of social policy, a social protocol needs broad legal and political discussion in order to build the necessary consensus.