Are trade unions winners or losers in EU policymaking? : A study of ETUC’s and BusinessEurope’s relative influence in the EU consultation of social partners under article 154 TFEU

• Main Author: Wolf, Signe
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen 2021
• Subjects: EU; trade union; 154 TFEU; ETUC; BusinessEurope; Influence; European Commission; workers influence; minimum wage; social partners; social dialogue; Political Science; Statsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-434605

This thesis investigated the influence imbalance between worker’s and employer’s interest in the EU policymaking. It is assumed that worker’s interests are disadvantaged, and this study is therefore examining the consultation of social partners under article 154 TFEU that considers social policy and can be used as a most-likely case for worker’s influence.The study is conducted by identifying conflicts between ETUC and BusinessEurope in their consultation replies and compare the different opinions with the Commission’s legislative proposal to find out which organisation that succeeded in influencing the Commission within each conflict.The results from this shows that each consultation generated between 0 to 6 conflicts and that most of the conflicts were won by BusinessEurope. This strengthens the assumption that there is an influence imbalance in EU legislation that makes the employer’s organisation BusinessEurope more influential than the trade unions ETUC.