INDUSTRIAL CITIZENSHIP UNDER REGIME COMPETITION - THE CASE OF THE EUROPEAN WORKS COUNCILS

As integrated Europe will not Nm into a federal state, rights of citiz enship, including industrial citizenship, remain nationally based. The article explores some of the consequences of this for social policy, at both European and national level. For empirical reference, it recon structs the evolution of European Union legislation on workplace repre sentation, in particular its movement in two decades from company to l abour law, from harmonization to co-ordination of national systems, fr om legal prescription to voluntaristic bargaining in the shadow of the market, and from a project of integrated European citizenship rights to the protection of the integrity of national systems. The article sh ows that national fragmentation of public power in an integrated econo my, however internationally co-ordinated exposes advanced national ver sions of industrial citizenship to economic competition. While thereby pressuring national systems to lower their standards, it even falls s hort of affording non-nationals equal rights in national systems.