Towards a European welfare and labour market model: an analysis of the genesis of
an institutional order
During the past decade, cooperation in the European Union has intensified in the field of social- and labour mar-ket policy and has led to a supranational system of wel-fare and labour market regulation. This article analyses the establishment of a European industrial relations system as an ‘institutional order’ and discusses how and why the system has developed. Three crucial situations are ana-lysed as to their contribution to the development of this institutional order. The first is the EU Commission’s three proposals for directives on atypical work in the beginning of 1990. The second is from October 199l when negotiators from three labour market organisations: UNICE, ETUC, and CEEP signed an agreement concerning possibilities of negotiating collective agreements at the European level. The third crucial situation is from Novem-ber 1995 and concerns the first agreement these organi-sations signed concerning maternity leave. The article argues that these events make up crucial situations on the road to the establishment of a European labour market model.
