New Modes of Regulation for Health and Safety: Post-Enlargement Policy Perspectives for the European Union

Abstract

The recent joining of ten new member states to the European Union, eight of which are former communist countries, has reopened inherent tensions in current European Union (EU) policy-making on safety and health in the workplace. These spring from seemingly incompatible objectives; the need to ensure broad EU member state compliance with regulation, around agreed minimum standards through active regulatory enforcement, and the promotion of “softer” voluntary initiatives in the management of workplace risks and hazards in order to create “a culture of prevention.” The present EU strategy which ends in 2006, seeks to secure a balance between both sets of objectives. However, with respect to the post-communist new member states of Central and Eastern Europe, the appropriateness of the current strategy is doubtful. This article therefore focuses on the implications of the expansion of the European Union in May 2004 in the context of the elaboration of the new “soft law” modes of regulatory governance at the EU level. In turn, this provokes the question: will the “new” European policy for occupational health and safety from 2007 onwards, be “new,” or simply more of the same? If the latter, it is suggested that the future for working environment standards in Europe as a whole may be significantly compromised.