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Comment on today’s ‘Viking’ case hearing at Euro Court of Justice
10 January 2007
The ITF has described today’s hearing on the ‘Viking’ case in the European Court of Justice as “a welcome step that takes forward the debate on how we live and work in the European Union”. Fifteen member states - as well as Norway and the European Commission - made submissions in the case, which pits trade union rights against economic interests.
ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: “The number of submissions show how many states have recognised just how deep the impact of this case could be, and we applaud the court’s determination to settle it.”
“What’s at issue here could hardly be more fundamental. The right to defend your job against the right of a business to do what it takes to up its profits - a Europe for the powerful or a Europe for its citizens.
“This is not about new entrants, or labour costs. It is about the rights and basic beliefs that most of us have always believed underpinned the European Union,” he concluded.
The ‘Viking’ case between the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the Finnish Seamen’s’ Union (FSU) and Viking Line Abp was referred by the Court of Appeal in London to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in November 2005.
According to the ITF it and the similar Vaxholm/Laval case come at a time when the enlarged European Union is engaged in a critical debate on its future direction, in particular the balance it should strike between its economic and social development and how to preserve the fundamental values that have underpinned it over the past 50 years.
The referral to the ECJ raises a question of constitutional and European importance regarding the right of workers to take collective action to defend their interests. It is concerned with the tension between two different policies in the Treaty: the free movement provisions and the EC social policy.
In effect the ECJ has been asked to decide the relationship or the ‘hierarchy of norms’ within the legal order of the European Community (EC) rules on free movement, as protected in Title III of the EC Treaty, and the fundamental rights of workers to take collective action, including industrial and strike action, as protected in Title XI of the EC Treaty.
Given that social policy is largely a Member State competence, it will also take a view as to the extent EU powers can encroach on national sovereignty by making Member State social models subject to EU economic freedoms as laid down in Articles 43 and 49.
ENDS
For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson.
Direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260.
Email: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk
International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Web: www.itfglobal.org
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