Social Europe: Lost in Just Transition?

The EU is heavily invested in using law and policy as a means to shape a sustainable future. The European Green Deal, the new growth strategy for a more sustainable EU economy, emphasises that the transition to a greener future also needs to be ‘just and inclusive’.

Following the European Green Deal, a set of instruments have been adopted which bring about a shift in how the EU regulates finance and business activities, most notably the EU Taxonomy Regulation, the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. All these instruments point to the centrality of environmental considerations in EU law making. Relatedly a lot of research is being produced on the integration of environmental considerations in different fields of EU law (Iacovides and Vrettos 2022; Andrecka and Mitkidis 2017; Cullen, Mähönen, and Nilsen 2022; Sjåfjell, Tsagas, and Villiers 2022), as well as on the implications of this renewed emphasis on environment for law and the economy (Kampourakis 2023; 2025; Bartl 2024).

However, achieving a sustainable future requires more than putting environmental considerations at the centre: it also demands ‘leaving no one behind’. This latter element is captured by the notion of just transition, an acknowledgement of the fact that the transition to a greener economy will produce winners and losers among workers, social groups and communities (Morena, Krause, and Stevis 2020). Just transition is increasingly becoming relevant to consider in the context of litigation where courts need to concretely decide what justice demands when various policies adopted to deliver a greener planet are put in place(Savaresi et al. 2024). The aspiration of pursuing just transition, which is an integral a part of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda as well as the ILO and the EU Green Deal, has so far attracted less attention in EU law. Relatedly, limited literature has examined the relation between labour law and pursuit of sustainability (key in this regard is the work of Novitz 2023; 2022; 2024; Polomarkakis 2020).

The regulatory approach of the EU to social sustainability has so far concentrated on business and human rights and financial reporting obligations. An important question this emphasis prompts, is the role of EU labour law and social policy in relation to the just transition, a question which has been raised so far mainly by trade unions. The aim of this workshop is to contribute to the literature on sustainability in EU law by focusing on the underexplored aspect of just transition. Specifically, the workshop aspires to explore and define points of connection and separation between social sustainability, the quest for Social Europe and just transition. To do so, the workshop seeks to bridge perspectives from EU social and labour law, corporate social responsibility and sustainability studies.

Call for papers

Time- frame and Instructions

The event will be organized on 1-2 September, 2025.
Please send your proposals to Dr Alezini Loxa, alezini [dot] loxa [at] jur [dot] lu [dot] se by the 30th of March 2025. The proposals should include an abstract of max 400 words and a short bio.
Selected authors will be notified by April 10th and are expected to submit a draft paper of max. 4000 words by August 25th, 2025.
The submissions will be considered for publication in the form of a special issue in a high-ranking EU law journal.
The workshop is organised with the kind support of the Lund University Centre for European Studies