Social Europe after Maastricht: Is the United Kingdom really opted out?

Abstract

The United Kingdom has for many years resisted the extension of social regulation from Brussels. This continuing resistance was highlighted at Maastricht by the negotiation of the social policy opt-out and the adoption by only eleven Member States, excluding the United Kingdom, of the Social Policy Agreement. This article considers the issues which those arrangements raise, concerning the constitutional character of Social Europe and the United Kingdom's place in it. It is argued that, although the United Kingdom has no obligations arising directly from the Social Policy Agreement, the effects of its social policy opt-out are limited by its existing Treaty obligations with respect to social legislation and by the impact of an increasingly multi-national industrial environment in which workers and management have an important role to play in the formulation and implementation of social policy.