EU som lagstiftare inom den sociala dimensionen - one size fits all? Samspel och motsättningar mellan den svenska modellen och EU-rätten

Sammanfattning: The Swedish model is characterized by the autonomy of social partners as a long withstanding tradition. This means that the social partners act as legislators, judges, and litigators with a low degree of governmental interference. This model has, however, been challenged several times since Sweden’s accession to the European Union in 1994 where Sweden reiterated the importance of defending the Swedish model and possibility to implement directives in collective agreements. The membership has been a turbulent time for social policy and the Swedish model has in many ways been challenged. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how Swedish labour law relates to EU labour law to understand how the Swedish model has been influenced by the accession to the EU and create an understanding as to why resistance from stakeholder of the labour market arise towards EU as a legislator in the social dimension. In the analysis, aspects of the influence of the EU on the Swedish model are discussed from certain development trends in EU social policy since Sweden’s accession to the EU and the reason for the stakeholders’ resistance towards EU. The conclusions drawn in this thesis is that the EU has had an immense influence on the Swedish model which stems from conflicts between the Swedish model and the European social model. These conflicts include the EUs strive to even the playing field in the single market by minimum standard provisions, increased government control, individualization, and the requirement that directives must encompass all workers. These interests oppose the interests of the Swedish model that, on the other hand, has a collective approach where collective agreements are key. Even though the membership has featured an interplay between interests, the conflict areas have remained regardless of development trends in EU social policy.