"Co-determination without works council? Collective representation within European institutions using the example of the ECB

The European Parliament considers the strengthening of employee and trade union rights as fundamental instruments for democracy and inclusion. While member states are obliged to incorporate collective bargaining autonomy and employee participation rights into their legal systems, the EU institutions and agencies are surprisingly exempt from this. The reasons why this is legally and politically allowed and to what extent future challenges of codetermination are anticipated in this context, will be discussed by focusing on the European Central Bank (ECB) located in Germany. This case demonstrates that even given the restrictive conditions the relevant trade union was quite successful in mobilizing the ECB workforce. An important approach in this context proves to be the targeted examination of the simultaneously administrative and epistemic-professional dual character of the organization and the relationship between democratic participation and open knowledge production."

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