The Soft Law of the Covenant: Making Governance Instrumental

Abstract

Covenants are agreements between the government and social partners to implement public policy. They are a form of soft law, guiding the regulation of self-regulation, and are specifically relevant in bridging the macro and meso levels of society. Covenants prove effective where actors share goals, and learn to advance policy-making by monitoring efforts, effects and possible risks, and by subsequently fine-tuning follow-up actions. Positive-sum outcomes often result. We describe successful examples of this method of cooperation in the realm of working conditions and employment, and claim that covenants can be helpful in facilitating collective-bargaining framework agreements. In terms of EU policies, covenants are an instance of so-called European Governance Arrangements, the political and institutional foundations of which are still to be developed

European social dialogue on psychosocial risks at work: Benefits and challenges

“…For example, in the UK the HSE has undertaken a range of initiatives to support organizations in the management of stress at work (www.hse. gov.uk/stress/index.htm), and in the Netherlands, psychosocial risks were successfully addressed by a combination of ministerial initiative and sectoral social dialogue (Korver and Oeij, 2005).…”

Labour Market Policy for ‘Active Ageing’ in Europe: Expanding the Options for Retirement Transitions

“…The government acts as an external monitoring agent and supporter of the self-commitments: for example, through privileged access to public resources or conferment of good reputation through rankings and good practice awards. A positive aspect that deserves highlighting is the fact that these self-commitments strengthen the involvement of the social partners, whereas the government's costs are limited to the creation of the framework and at most to the provision of kick-off financing (Korver and Oeij, 2005).…”

Preserving the Rule of Law Through Transnational Soft Law: The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism

“…New governance methods can rely on institutional infrastructures falling entirely outside the realm of traditional branches of 'constitutional' government (Iancu and Tănăsescu 2018). They generally consist of information sharing through reporting and discussion supporting progressive learning and innovation through non-binding rules such as recommendations, opinions or reports, also known as 'soft law' (Korver and Oeij 2005;Sabel and Zeitlin 2008). Even though tagged as 'new' governance, such tools have been a feature of EU law since the 1960s but have become increasingly common over the years.…”