Labor standards and external promotion of European norms

Introduction: The European Union doesn’t have its own labor code defining the rights and obligations of employees and employers. Employment policy and social policy lay essentially within the competences of the Member States. Moreover the EU is not a signatory to ILO conventions, and cannot ratify any the ILO Conventions, because only EU member states can be signatories. Nevertheless according to the article 153 TFEU the EU shall support and complement the activities of the Member States regarding labor issues, as protection of workers and modernization of social protection among many others. Thus labor norms and standards have been promoted via different methods and different techniques, and different actors have been involved, not necessarily with full consent and support of member states. Aforementioned complementary activities could be found in the free trade agreement signed by the EU with South Korea, and will be found in upcoming agreements with the US, Singapore, India, and Canada