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The present paper examines two important and up-to-date topics in labour law. First, the analysis focuses on the general aspects and the significance of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), which is the most recent legal source – except for a couple of directives and regulations based on the EPSR itself – in the social policy of the European Union. It contains several fundamental labour and social rights and one of its main aims is to promote and to strengthen these rights and values throughout the Membes States. At the same time, the EPSR is already having an impact on national labour and social law systems in the EU because of some new pieces of labour law-focused legislation. One of these new laws is the Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council (20 June 2019) on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union that contains very important new norms regarding both the possible broad concept of the “employment relationship” and the workers’ fundamental rights. Second, the paper focuses on some relevant questions of the Hungarian labour law as a case study, analysing the possible – and already visible – impact of the EPSR and the aforemtnioned new directive. The paper tries to answer some questions based on the paper’s hypotheses centred on the possible change in the Hungarian regulation and legal interpretation taking into account the EPSR and the already cited directive. The analysis is based on the relevant regulations and laws, and the outcomes of the research focus both on some general remarks regarding the EPSR and the Directive (EU) 2019/1152 joint with the conclusions that can be drawn paying attention specifically to the Hungarian labour law system with special attention to the workers’ fundamental rights [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By providing financial resources, conditional to the implementation of the (social) recommendations in the Semester and the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) has opened new political and institutional opportunity windows for the multi‐level co‐production of social policies. The article first dives into how the RRF has been translated into national social policies choices, by assessing the alignment of reforms and investments with the Semester social recommendations and their capacity to address the social vulnerabilities identified in the Pillar's Social Scoreboard. Second, it sheds light on the interaction between the European Commission, in charge of assessing and monitoring the RRF, and the national governments, the key actors in setting‐up and implementing the plans. Comparing six case studies (Italy, Germany, Spain, Croatia, Belgium and Austria), the article shows that the RRF has only partially contributed to reinforcing member states' compliance with social Country Specific Recommendations and the role of the Social Pillar in the drafting of National Recovery and Resilience Plans has been very limited. This notwithstanding, the RRF has contributed to fasten‐forward the implementation of welfare reforms and initiatives which would have been remained on the paper, especially for whose countries with limited fiscal capacity. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence of the collaborative approach between the Commission and the national government, substantiating the claim of the emergence of a new mode of coordinative Europeanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines institutional change in father‐specific leave ‐ a centre‐piece of the EU's work‐life balance directive (WLBD) ‐ from the perspective of gradual institutional change. The WLBD, a highly contentious directive, represents a litmus test for the possible impact of the European pillar of social rights (EPSR), on welfare state institutions, which are responsible for the organisation, financing and delivery of social rights in member states. The analysis comprises in‐depth case studies in Denmark, Germany, France and Poland, with different combinations of family and parental leave policies prior to the WLBD. The findings reveal that the EU's directive is leading to convergence in paternity leave, but to divergence in parental leave. Our study is important because it shows that even if EU directives in social policy in principle can lead to upwards social convergence across the EU, when they are relatively weak in terms of precise constraint, for instance, for the level of remuneration for leave, this leads to differentiated integration. This could undermine the very purpose of the EPSR, which seeks to improve social rights for all citizens across the EU. Similar dynamics are likely to be present in other areas at the welfare state‐labor market nexus, such as minimum wages or platform work, where the EU is also developing regulation under the auspices of the EPSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]