Representing Workers or Presenting EU Prescriptions? Trade Unions from Post-Socialist Member States in EU Multi-Level Governance

Abstract

From both the historical and legal perspectives, trade unions belong to the non-state actors with the highest degree of involvement in political representation in European societies. From a historical perspective, trade unions were one of the first collective actors with a mass following to emerge in the wake of industrialization and, therefore, received special attention from policy-makers. As a result, their prerogatives, over other interest groups, together with those of employers’ associations, were codified in most European countries through special legislation on wage bargaining and social dialogues. Through the European Social Dialogue they also have — at least de jure — a privileged position in EU level policy-making.