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Abstract: In view of recent evaluations of the European Employment Strategy (EES), the European Employment Taskforce urged the Member States to step up their efforts to implement the Lisbon objectives. In the absence of decisive action, it looks increasingly unlikely that these objectives will be achieved by 2010. In the opinion of the Taskforce, the EES is approaching 'the moment of truth', making the question of how to proceed even more pressing. Actors at European level tend to seek a solution in a combination of merely procedural reforms and a more comprehensive and intensified involvement of the relevant actors at the relevant levels. However, in the light of past experience, it is questionable to what extent this approach will lead to better results. This paper aims to provide an answer to the question of whether the proposed changes properly address the existing imbalance between the economic and social objectives of the EES, and to consider whether the EES needs another approach. A critical review is presented of the instruments and implementation methods of the EES for the purposes of a more effective delivery of the Lisbon objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the dominance of the economic approach (see the first part of this paper) the Treaty of Rome provided for only a small body of provisions concerning labour relations, with the emphasis on guaranteeing the free movement of labour. In the absence of a sound legislative basis in the Treaty, it is not surprising that European labour legislation has been adopted on a piecemeal basis. This is to a certain extent the result of the competition between the (pure) economic model and the social policy approach of European integration. The former favours abstentionism by member states, the latter, especially in the formulation of social rights, seeks a high level of employment rights protection. Against this background nearly all areas of European Labour Law are characterised by the need to strike a balance between economic and social objectives. Some examples of this are the respect for the freedom of contract, limited only by the duty not to discriminate against workers on grounds of sex, ethnic origin, age and other factors, and the safeguarding of entrepreneurial decision-making, limited only by information and consultation rights for workers. In examining the Directives on atypical work (part-time, fixed-term employment) it is evident that considerable efforts have been made to strike a balance between employers' and employees' interests. Clearly, not all the legislation commands universal support, but this is only to be expected in view of the heterogeneity of the 15 Member States. However, it seems that European Labour Law has achieved a considerable degree of success in the search for social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the meaning of autonomy in European context, particularly from the definition of social dialogue adopted by the European Commission and its social partners. The author discusses the applicability of collective autonomy parameters as developed by labour law and industrial relations theory. The author argues that autonomy should be considered as a primarily procedural issue and that autonomous agreements should be recognized as relevant to the European legal system.

The article offers insights on flexicurity, an approach to labour market regulation that is aimed at combining labour market flexibility with individual security in the European Union (EU) countries, and globalization. It explains the emergence of the approach as a new and common model for social policy under the European Employment Strategy (EES). Also explored is the political association between flexicurity and globalization. Key components of flexicurity are tackled, including comprehensive lifelong learning (LLL) strategies.

Foreign students and trainees are welcomed by the EU for study purposes. Member States must ensure that during their studies third-country national (TCN) students can legally work for at least ten hours a week, whereas trainees may not. This article deals with these often overlooked TCN students and trainees as migrant workers. It presents an extensive analysis of EU labour migration Directives on the level of protection of TCN students and trainees in comparison to illegally staying TCNs, with a case-study based on Dutch employer sanctions case law. The aim of the article is to map this reclassification of students and trainees as workers. One conclusion is that legally staying migrants may be more vulnerable and receive less protection under EU law than irregular migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the growth and development of the European labor law from 1985 to 2010 starting from a European Economic Community (EEC). It offers an overview of the progress in individual legislation on health and safety and employee protection in the case of transnational services and administration as well as the legislative steps in collective labor law. It also explores the voluntary framework agreements including the European Collective Agreement and other European collective bargaining agreements during the said period.

The article discusses the merits of creating a Restatement of labour law given the worth of having a common frame of reference which has taken effect in European contract law. It analyzes the difficulties of arriving at common terms and principles to serve as reference and discusses propositions about labour law that has impact on the feasibility of a restatement. It concludes that the peculiarity of labour law does not render its restatement impossible and stresses that a clear reference will serve as map of labour law systems.

The article discusses the development of employment policies in the European labor market. It explores the labor market trends in the old and new European Union (EU) Member States and the problems being faced by Europe with regard to its labor market. Examples of labor market policies in some EU Member States as well as policy recommendations for the future rethinking and development of labor market policies in Central and Eastern European countries are presented.

The article gives justifications for just cause dismissal laws in Europe. The author supports the need for protective legislation against unfair dismissal. Considering that the regulation of dismissals is one of the key elements of labor law systems, he reflects on the philosophy underlying the just cause for dismissals. He also examines the impact of just cause regime on economic efficiency. The author suggests to improve procedures in order to make justified dismissals swift and inexpensive.

When the Treaty of Rome came into force in 1958, nobody would have dared prognosticate such a dynamic development of the body of legislation which we today are accustomed to calling European Labour Law. It is well known that the Founding Fathers did not take the line of enhanced social policy on the European level and therefore assigned the area of labour law only a very limited role. But due to changes in the political and economic arena at the beginning of the 1970s, a social policy approach gained momentum which did not replace the dominant economic approach, but at least came alongside this model and had a strong impact on policy-making. It resulted in several pieces of legislation, the nature of which was mainly crisis management (Directives concerning employer insolvency, collective redundancies, transfer of undertakings). The further development of European Labour Law is characterized by this tension between economic and social requirements and this tension explains the ups and downs of European Labour Law. The need to balance economic and social necessities is mirrored also in the jurisprudence of the ECJ which in the shaping of European Labour Law has been of the utmost importance. The same is true for the activities of the European social partners who finally became part of the law-making process on the European level. The European Employment Strategy constitutes a new challenge for labour legislation which might be forced to give preference to reducing protection standards in order to reach higher employment levels. But so far the social rights approach -- also adopted in the Charter of Fundamental Rights -- seems to continue its influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European employment discrimination law has made a major step forward recently: Council Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC aim to prohibit the employer from discriminating because of race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. Similar anti-discrimination provisions were enacted many years ago in the United States. In the light of the experience of the U.S. courts with these statutes, this article intends to explore possible consequences of the new Directive for the Member States employment law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the anti-discrimination legislation and the case law dealing with employment discrimination in the United States. These legislation are among the most topical labor law issues in Europe. The employment discrimination has been a hot topic in recent years due to the fact that extensive EC legislation proscribing employment discrimination has been passed. The legislation contains certain directives. The directive 2000/78/EC bans discrimination on grounds of race and ethnic origin. National legislation implementing EC equal treatment directives, however will be ineffective unless it is underpinned by enforcement mechanisms.