Abstract
One year from the signature of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) this event will consider how workers can use the agreement to prevent attacks on workers’ rights.
The EU-UK TCA goes beyond the weak approach taken towards multilateral labour standards contained in the other free trade agreements concluded by the EU, with countries such as Canada or South Korea. It contains commitments to uphold high standards – Level Playing Field clauses - with the possibility to impose sanctions for violations of these standards.
This event will launch a new report by Professor Federico Ortino on how workers can use the Level Playing Field clauses in the TCA to challenge attacks on rights and hold governments to account to uphold high standards. The report will also consider how the 2025 review that will take place of the TCA could be used to strengthen the enforcement of Level Playing Field commitments.
The event will also feature comments from Bernd Lange MEP (Vice-Chair of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, member of the UK Coordination Group and chair of the EU International Trade committee) as well as the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and ETUC.
Draft agenda
15.00 Welcome and introduction – Nicola Countouris, ETUI Research Director (Chair)
15.10 Presentation of the TUC report on the Level Playing Field clauses in the TCA - Prof. Federico Ortino, King’s College London
15.25 Trade union perspective on the report and importance of the LPF clauses – Claes-Mikael Stahl, Deputy General Secretary ETUC and Rosa Crawford, TUC
15.40 European Parliament work to ensure European Commission enforces LPF clauses – Bernd Lange, Chair of the Committee on International Trade, Co-Chair of the UK Contact Group of the European Parliament
15.50 Break
16.05 Discussion – Prof. Keith Ewing, King’s College London and Prof. Tonia Novitz, University of Bristol, followed by Q&A with the audience
16.50 Conclusion and next steps – Claes-Mikael Stahl, Deputy General Secretary ETUC and Rosa Crawford, TUC
17.00 Close of event
Interpretation will be available in and from English, French, German and Spanish.
Background reading:
- Protecting workers’ rights using the UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement' - TUC summary
- Protecting workers’ rights using the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement - full report
- Politico coverage of the report
- Spanish translation
- French translation
- Italian translation
- German translation