Social Europe in times of crises: what lessons can be gleaned from the past?

Abstract

This paper aims to ask whether the social dimension of the European Union still exists in a period of two crises (the pandemic and the war in Ukraine), which have strongly been hitting the economies and societies all over the world. To understand the EU’s reaction to both the emergencies it is necessary to trace the path of EU labour law from the beginning: the story of the European Union in the social field is a story of progressive enforcement of its competencies but also of continuous stops and goes form the political point of view.