24 November 2009 - Social justice and fairness within and outside the EU: A new role for the ILO?

Speaker: Rudi Delarue, Director, International Labour Organisation
Moderator: Philippe Pochet, General Director, ETUI
Comments: Janine Goetschy Researcher CNRS/ULB, Catelene Passchier, ETUC

Download key ILO documents:

ILO global jobs pact
ILO 2008 declaration on social justice for a fair globalisation
Protecting people, promoting jobs: from crisis response to recovery and sustainable growth

Briefing:

In his presentation, Rudi Delarue will discuss the ILO’s work with regard to the issue of social justice and fairness both within and outside the EU. The nature of EU-ILO cooperation has changed considerably in recent years, and in particular since the progressive extension of EU actions and methods of work on employment and social policy, EU enlargement and the emergence of the EU as a global player. At the same time ILO conventions and frameworks complement the “acquis communautaire” as the EU norms do not cover all dimensions of the world of work (e.g. no EU laws on labour inspection, on minimum standards for social security, on the modalities of freedom of association and collective bargaining, on minimum wage fixing). The EU also uses ILO norms in EU laws (e.g. maritime work). This is beneficial for both EU and ILO as it fosters policy coherence.

A more diversified EU dealing with many different policies and operating through different institutions can be confronted with internal contradictions and inconsistencies in its internal and external policies. Some positions on the internal market can for example conflict with international commitments, even if they are enshrined in fundamental conventions ratified by all EU 27 (such as the eight CLS conventions). According to the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights (part of Lisbon treaty), international conventions ratified by all EU Member States have a special “constitutional” significance.

The recently initialled FTA between the EU and South Korea and the EPA with the Caribbean Forum of ACP States (Cariform) include both the commitment of promoting the ratification and application of the ILO core labour standards conventions. Both parties also agree that more efforts should be made to ratify and apply other ILO conventions. The initialled FTA with South Korea even refers to promotion of other conventions classified by the ILO as up to date. Both agreements also include also the promotion of the decent work agenda. The EU institutions can therefore no longer limit the assessment of the relationship between internal market freedoms and social obligations on an intra EU basis as this could affect not only the EU credibility externally but also international obligations, directly accepted by the EU. The EU has also explicitly supported the adoption of both the 2008 ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation (it defines the decent work agenda and its methods of implementation) and the 2009 ILO Global Jobs Pact. The European Council of September 2009 welcomed the Global Jobs Pact in the EU agreed position for the G20 Summit. All EU institutions have endorsed the decent work agenda and the objective of strengthening the social dimension of globalisation.

In the past some observers, including some in Europe, questioned whether the ILO was still relevant. They assumed that the EU level was a more effective one. However the limitations of the EU competences, the intensification of globalisation and the need to include more explicitly employment and social policy in EU external action resulted in a renewed attention to the ILO. The global financial, economic and jobs crisis and the need for greening the economy require also a global and coherent approach. EU-ILO cooperation can be mutually beneficial, both inside and outside the EU.