Labour Law and the Social Dimension of the EU Just Transition Agenda: A Spillover of European Integration’s Asymmetry Through Symbolic Policy-Making

In the face of increasing attention to the social dimension of EU just transition, this article undertakes a critical assessment of the pertinent EU initiatives, particularly focusing on the interaction between EU labour law and the emerging social dimension of the EU just transition agenda. It draws on the asymmetry of European integration and the ordoliberal origins of the European project, to identify the tensions embedded in the relevant law and policy-making processes, and which may hamper the potential of any initiatives in the area. In turn, this may result in symbolic or un(der)enacted policies: important declarations of commitment to embed labour law and other social considerations, but without effectively doing so in practice. This is reflected in worker protection’s dependency on economic interests. the absence of binding social initiatives, the anaemic engagement with existing labour laws, the difficulties in legal mobilisation and strategic litigation, the limited role of social dialogue and the divergence between internal and external commitment to labour standards. Accordingly, the article’s contribution is two-fold. First, it makes a methodological contribution by extending the field of application of its analytical concepts to the nexus of EU labour law and just transition. Second, it sets out to provide a theoretically-informed policy assessment of labour law’s embeddedness in the EU just transition discourse.