Transfer stimulates dialogue between the European trade union movement and the academic and research community. It contributes research findings on issues of strategic relevance for trade unions, in particular with regard to developments at the European level. Transfer publishes original peer-reviewed research on issues such as new developments in industrial relations, social policy, and labour market developments.
Volume 18 Issue 3, August 2012
‘Social Europe’, one of the core elements of Jacques Delors’ social democratic heritage, promised to lend the European political project greater legitimacy. Thanks to his efforts, the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) contributed decisively to institutionalizing social and employment policies in the European political system. The objectives of promoting ‘a high level of employment’ and better coordinating social policies and social protection in accordance with the basic rules – spelled out in the European Social Charter (1961) and the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers (1989) – became new elements of the European Community’s legal basis.