Cross–Border Workers in the European Internal Market: Trojan Horses for Member States’ Labour and Social Security Law?

Abstract

This article examines whether the European internal market is threatening the social welfare state, in particular from the viewpoint of the territorial application of Member States’ labour and social security law of cross–border workers in Europe. The analysis will reveal that the law governing the internal market, including the free movement of workers, was primarily a guarantee for the territorial application of Member States’ labour and social security law thanks to the principle of prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality. But more recently the right of service providers to temporarily perform work in another Member State with their own employees has been threatening to undermine the territorial application of labour and social security law. This article analyses how Community law and in particular the European Court of Justice have been handling this issue.