Contradictions Between Austerity in the European Union and the Multilevel Legal Framework: Reinforcing a Rights-Based Approach to Solidarity

Since 2008, the governance of EU social policy has been more closely connected with economic and fiscal policy. Austerity has been implemented through that revised regulatory framework, mainly in southern European countries, with ever clearer disruptive consequences at social and economic level. But austerity and its´ regulatory implementation as an answer to the crisis, could be said to show ever greater contradictions, not only with the goals and values of the EU, and to a certain extent, to EU’s social policy itself, but also with the traditional social model of its Member States, rooted in the idea of social citizenship, and based on the idea of social rights and their realization. However, it is contended that the latter model still finds expression in the European multilevel legal framework, composed of fundamental social rights instruments (ILO conventions, European Social Charter, EU Charter or national constitutions). In a first part, the paper identifies more clearly the contradictions between austerity implemented through the EU policy framework and social rights as expressed in the multilevel legal framework. It focuses on Spain as the basis of a case study including other Member States. A second part explores the possible use of the multilevel legal framework by institutions, the judiciary and traditional and new social forces to limit the implementation of austerity through the reinforcement of a regulatory model based on rights, and how this course can help to guarantee in the future the idea of social solidarity at the heart of the European Social Model.