What are the consequences to the European Union (EU) and its so-called "social
model" of its recent (and proposed future) expansion to include the postcommunist
societies of eastern Europe?
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Most of these new member states have industrial relations
and labor market regimes that are considerably weaker and more liberal than in the older
member states of continental Europe. What might the impact be of these quite different
labor regimes within the now expanded EU? Discussing the dramatically changing
environment for European industrial relations, Visser (2005) argued that "the realization
of the Economic and Monetary Union and the enlargement of the EU were the two key
European events of the past decade". Writing a year ago, Visser wrote that it was too
early to determine the impact of enlargement on the labor and social policies of Europe as
a whole. With this caveat still largely holds, I intend in this paper to explore areas of
concern regarding labor politics in the now expanded EU.
Two alternative hypotheses would suggest that enlargement should not be a
concern for western European labor policies or the so-called Social Model. The varieties
of capitalism perspective argues that domestic institutions in advanced countries in
particular are, while not impervious to change, at least resistant to pressures for
convergence (Hall and Soskice, 2001; Amable, 2005). Thus, even with pressure from a
more liberal labor model in the east, the coordinated model of most continental European
countries will at least remain distinct. A quite different hypothesis would be that the
European Social Model and European-style collective bargaining is under such strain
already, that enlargement itself will make little additional difference. The argument in
this paper sets a middle course between these views: while the institutions of western
European societies are resilient, and that nevertheless pressures on collective bargaining
and other labor relation institutions are considerable, the enlargement of the EU will be a
significant additional source of pressure pushing these and related institutions to change
toward the liberal direction.
The paper will proceed as follows: first, it will examine some additional
indications of the weakness and/or liberal nature of labor relations and labor market
conditions and policy in the countries of east central Europe. Then, it will investigate the
covariance of labor policies with other policy areas, specifically fiscal and welfare
Convention