Documents Orbie, Jan 4 results

"Surprisingly, labour provisions in EU bilateral trade agreements have widened and deepened over the past decade. One would have expected the opposite, given the coming to power of centre-right governments in the early 2000s and a stronger liberalization agenda since 2006. This article addresses this rather remarkable development. First of all it dismisses the argument that protectionist motives underlie the stronger social clauses in EU trade agreements. Instead, drawing on the theory of the life-cycle of norms, it suggests that social trade has become an unobjectionable norm within the EU. The article then offers several explanations for why the social-trade nexus has been barely disputed, and indeed has further expanded through subsequent trade arrangements. These include the stronger influence of the European Parliament, path-dependencies stemming from the EU's previous template, and the need to gain public support in the face of criticism of free trade agreements. Most importantly, it stresses that the framing of core labour rights as part of a broader ‘sustainable development' agenda has contributed to their unobjectionable status. While this framing has helped to forge a consensus with regard to the social trade agenda, giving equal status to labour and environmental provisions under the sustainable development umbrella might also have adverse consequences for the concept of labour provisions."

"This volume provides a comprehensive account of the European Union's social role in the world, assessing the EU's ability to shape the social aspect of globalization from both law and political science perspectives. Focusing explicitly on the EU, the authors address the extent of coherence between the Union's international social objectives compared with the activities of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and with other EU foreign policy goals. "

"The EU has often been accused of soft approach to trade-labour linkages in trade agreement by the inclusion of labour provisions in the trade and sustainable development chapter and by a focus on cooperation and dialogue. Rather than focusing on hard enforcement proceeding, the EU is not yet exploring all the opportunities created under these chapters.



This Policy Brief outlines a different approach that the EU can use in demanding respect for labour rights in its trade agreement with third countries. It shows the need to develop a thorough, systematic and inclusive monitoring process involving civil society while developing an holistic approach for the promotion of labour rights going beyond EU's trade relations. "

"This symposium considers Europe's global social policy through an exchange of ideas between scholars with different areas of expertise. The lead article provides an overview of the EU's objectives and instruments in promoting the social dimension of globalization, illustrating its focus on international labour standards and the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the shift from trade measures to a broader spectrum of soft external policy instruments. More specifically, we analyse the horizontal and vertical coherence of the EU's international social policies. The three other contributions to this symposium elaborate on this distinction by examining the social dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy, the `uploading' of the EU social model in the ILO, and the EU's promotion of corporate social responsibility in the world. These accounts suggest that market-enhancing goals often take priority over social objectives, and that the EU can at best be seen as a regional social power. In addition, the contributions point to the limitations of an ambitious EU role in this area."