The European Union and Human Rights

Chapter 4 provides a critical perspective on the development of the EU in the Cold War period, the ideological tensions underpinning its operation and its increasing influence on the development of concepts of human rights and their reflection in EU social policy. Issues covered include the tensions between human rights and EU’s ‘pooled sovereignty’, economic, foreign, and migration policies. It discusses the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Pillar of Social Rights, the challenges posed by neoliberalist concepts of ‘free trade’ ‘competition’ and ‘privatisation’. Finally, it looks at the challenges facing the EU as a result of a range of global situations – the banking crisis, refugees fleeing ongoing conflict, migration and globalisation, global inequalities in trade and wealth and global insecurity.