Enlargement
Enlargement refers to the process of accession to the European Union of new Member States as provided for in Article 49 TEU. Conditions of admission and any transition periods are to be agreed.
Enlargement has had an impact on employment and industrial relations in the EU. The six founding nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands), which established the European Economic Community under the Treaty of Rome in 1957, shared a common West European continental tradition of employment and industrial relations.
Denmark, Ireland and the UK, which joined in 1973, had different experiences based on Anglo-Saxon and Nordic traditions. Their accession coincided with a decisive change in the EU’s social policy with the adoption of the Social Action Programme in 1974.
The enlargement to include Greece (1981) and Portugal and Spain (1986) incorporated into the EU three countries that had only recently emerged from dictatorship regimes, bringing with them new constitutional experiences evincing a sensitivity to fundamental social rights, evident in the 1989 Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers.
The accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995 brought into the Union three countries with relatively high levels of trade union membership, traditions of social partnership and active labour market policies, and the Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997 included a new title on employment.
Ten new countries – the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – joined the Union on 1 May 2004.
Bulgaria and Romania, having completed negotiations, signed their Treaty of accession on 25 April 2005 and will join on 1 January 2007. At the European Council on 17 and 18 June 2004, the Union reaffirmed its commitment to start accession negotiations with Turkey without delay, provided it complied with the Copenhagen political criteria. In its recommendation of 6 October 2004, the Commission concluded that Turkey satisfied the Copenhagen political criteria and recommended that accession negotiations be opened. On 3 October 2005, the EU started negotiations with Turkey. On 18 June 2004, the European Council also granted Croatia the status of a candidate country. In October 2010, Iceland and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have also gained the status of candidate countries.
The accession of Bulgaria and Romania so far marked the latest stage of a development which has its roots in the collapse of communism, symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This offered an unexpected and unprecedented opportunity to extend European integration into central and eastern Europe. The major challenges for the European Union in terms of employment and industrial relations include raising the newcomers’ living standards, which, along with the New Member States who joined in May 2004 and January 2007, are all below the EU average.
There is also a need to tackle issues of labour migration, not just from the perspective of the ‘old’ Member States who may have concerns about immigation, but also from the point of view of the labour shortages created in the new Member States by large-scale emigration.
Finally, across central and eastern Europe, it will be necessary to establish and consolidate social dialogue in circumstances where there is little tradition in this area and major difficulties in bringing together representatives from the social partners.
See also: accession; acquis communautaire; immigration; social acquis.