Life loves a tragedy

Zef Even

At the end of the year, one tends to look back and reflect on the developments of the year passing by. The major development is, of course, the war in the Ukraine. This impacted many things, most importantly the lives of the people in the Ukraine, but also the markets of the Member States. Gas prices, for one thing, have soared. Inflation rates are off the charts. This surely impacts EU businesses and their employees. Unfortunately, the economies of the Member States were still recovering from another, I fear still lingering, enemy: Covid. And in the meantime, we are focusing on yet another foe, climate change.It seems we are moving from one major threat to another. Life seems to love a tragedy (something I already learnt from the glam rock band Poison, which wrote a song with that title, a title that I have borrowed). The EU sets high standards to combat these tragedies, these threats. This we can see in any event when it comes to climate change, but also in a broader perspective there seems to be an ambition to combat threats on a global scale. A good example is the 2022 proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. That Directive, if adopted, will lay down rules on (a) obligations for companies regarding actual and potential human rights adverse impacts and environmental adverse impacts, with respect to their own operations, the operations of their subsidiaries, and the value chain operations carried out by entities with whom the company has an established business relationship and on (b) liability for violations of these obligations.Implementing such standards will most likely impact the way we will be doing business, with potentially more of an eye on workers around the world. Adverse impacts, after all, include human rights issues such as forced labour, child labour, inadequate workplace health and safety and exploitation of workers. Issues that, to a certain extent, are also relevant within the EU itself.These high ambitions are also visible when it comes to social policy within the EU. The Pillar of Social Rights is used as a stepping stone to implement various new rules with a potential high social impact on Member States and on topics that used to be considered national affairs. A good example is the Directive on adequate minimum wages: a topic that used to be the sole domain of Member States but now must heed EU legislation. Although I have expressed some concerns about the compliance with the principle of subsidiarity when it comes to such initiatives, we cannot ignore the EU tendency to increase regulation on social issues. It seems safe to assume that this development will continue in the time to come. I’m curious how that will work out and how this legislation will be absorbed by the Member States. Time will tell.In the meantime, we can absorb interesting new cases in relevant EU-matters of the Member States. You can read about (alleged) discrimination in the UK, Denmark, and Lithuania, and also on the habitual place of work in Belgium and temporary agency work in the Netherlands.

Enjoy!

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ECJ 5 June 2025, case C-762/23 (Curtea de Apel Bucureşti (Suppression d’une indemnité de depart à la retraite des juges)), Pension

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