European works councils and the Maastricht social agreement: Towards a new policy style?

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Abstract
The Maastricht Agreement on Social Policy creates a new policy regime which impinges on the main actors’ behaviour and preferences. This case study of the European Works Councils Directive suggests the development of an innovative policy style. ‘Euro‐corporatist’ procedures now have priority vis‐à‐vis traditional decision‐making in the Council. In this first decision under the new legal basis, they did not produce a collective agreement. This could be different in future cases as the Social Agreement gives considerable incentives for reforms within the European social partner federations. The Directive on European Works Councils may be seen as a spillover from the Internal Market to EC labour law facilitated by the extension of qualified majority voting. The overall policy process involves successive decision‐making (partly by the social partners) on at least three levels: European, national and subnational. Concerning the regulatory style, a more flexible and minimalist approach was chosen in comparison to earlier drafts of the Directive.