In the run up to the May elections what are Germany’s major political parties proposals in terms of labor policy? At first glance one can observe a marked return to polarization with the right wing putting little forward and indeed falling back more towards the national framework, while the left wing sees labor issues as a real platform for greater European integration. Notable by its lack of any strong clear labor market policy is the traditional force driving European reforms, i.e. the conservative CDU/CSU coalition as it struggles to overcome internal divisions and the transfer of power between outgoing leader Angela Merkel and her successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
- The Christian-Democrat CDU/CSU union European election program
- No pan-European minimum salary and no extension of co-determination. While the coalition is ostensibly calling for labor related social minima to be safeguarded and extended across all of the EU, it also clarified that ‘money cannot solve everything.’ Instead of specifying these social minima, the CDU/CSU argues that social security systems, minimum salary regulations, and pensions insurance regulations should remain under national EU Member State control. In contrast with the ‘Social Europe’ concept that is being called for by the Social Democrats and by left-wing groups, the CDU/CSU coalition objects to Brussels intervening in national legislation on worker representation and labor protection.
- Creative opacity, except for clarity on apprenticeships. While Germany’s Conservatives are pushing for an improvement in the conditions framing EU labor mobility, nothing clear has yet been stated, apart from calling for measures to be coordinated in a better, smoother, more streamlined, and less bureaucratic fashion.
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