From a Siloed Regulation to a Holistic Approach ? Labour and Environnemental Sustainability Under EU Law, Italan Law Journal, Vol. 8, p. 683

  • Bugada Alexis
  • Tomassetti P.

ART

Drawing on a progressive interpretation of sustainable development, this article reviews, contrasts and analyses channels for interaction and integration between labour and environmental sustainability in two EU normative domains: social policy and environment policy. While a siloed approach is still evident in both domains, with very few exceptions, recent EU legislation on the economic pillar of sustainability has promoted horizontal policies on labour and the environment. Social and environmental clauses have been enacted in EU financial law, public procurement law and corporate law. The analysed examples of horizontal policies to advance labour and environmental sustainability present risks and opportunities. Arguably, the main risk is that such policies end up in accentuating rather than surmounting the competition between labour and the environment as “fictitious commodities”.