The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission proclaimed the European Pillar of Social Rights twenty years after the last Social Summit and the inclusion of social rights in the Treaty of Amsterdam. Ten years of financial turmoil have cut the implementation of social policies in the Member States. Taking into account the European Institutions' limited capacity to act in the field of social policy, how can we go from symbolic words to legal facts? Is there room for new pretorian protection of rights, at this moment social rights, from the judicial activism of the ECJ, in the absence of other legal developments?
This paper proposal put forward a review of the elements already at the EU disposal to build the fourth pillar: the acknowledgement of social objectives (art. 3 TEU), the guiding principles to design its policies (art. 9 TFEU), and the three European Social Charters. It is supported by the Jean Monnet Module 575133-EPP-1-2016-1-ES-EPPJMO-MODULE