Introduction: The EU new economic governance, labour law and labour lawyers

Abstract

The new economic governance of the European Union emerged as an important legacy of the Eurozone crisis. Although its suspension during the COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat reduced its visibility, the process of the European Semester remains as central as ever in coordinating socio-economic policies of Member States, notably through its link with the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Two of the most relevant tools of the EU Economic Governance, notably Memoranda of Understanding and Country Specific Recommendations, focus, to an important degree, on labour law reforms. As such, it is important to question the role which these instruments have played, and will potentially play in the future, for national systems of labour law as well as for the evolution of EU labour law itself. To do so, it is necessary to go beyond quantitative or macro approaches to the content of the prescriptions of these tools, in order to analyse their impact on specific labour law systems and national contexts. This will generate a better understating of the relevance of the EU economic governance for the field of labour law.