*Without the British around, they're getting more European.
*Euroskeptics are always saying, "Oh well, the Europeans never really do what they say, it's just symbolism" except when the Europeans actually do what they've said years ago, and then Euroskeptics have a full-scale moral panic and start screaming ludicrous myths about regulated bananas.
https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Social_Rights_Booklet-1.pdf
Well, it's that or cede ground to the neo-fascists, so, uh, why not, exactly
EU leaders promise ‘people first’ at summit on social rights
EU leaders pledge greater protections for workers, families and pensioners at a ‘Social Summit’ in Gothenburg.
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
11/17/17, 3:53 PM CET Updated 11/17/17, 11:50 PM CET
GOTHENBURG, Sweden — EU leaders agreed on Friday to do more to protect Europe’s workers from what one of them called “an excessive focus” on economics, though some conservative leaders share business’ concern that Brussels should keep its nose out of individual countries’ social policies.
The advance of Euroskeptic populism has persuaded EU leaders that they need to do more to convince ordinary people that the bloc is defending their interests. Tellingly, the last “social summit” was in 1997 and was hosted by Luxembourg’s then prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker. Now European Commission president, he has made the “Social Pillar” a pet project.
“It’s time to put people first,” said Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, (((a former blue-collar welder, so of course he can't possibly mean it))) co-host of the summit in Gothenburg attended by 25 of the EU’s 28 leaders. Germany’s Angela Merkel stayed away, busy with coalition talks, raising questions about how committed Europe’s leaders really are to the Social Pillar.
EU capitals largely retain sovereign control over labor and social-welfare policies, and conditions and legislation vary widely across the Continent, creating a motley patchwork of wages, taxes and benefits. Minimum wages, for example, range from €235 a month in Bulgaria to nearly €2,000 per month in Luxembourg. Legally, the EU will have minimal ability to enforce the Social Pillar or redress alleged rights violations.
The Pillar of Social Rights is therefore largely a symbolic gesture, designed to show leaders’ commitment to an electorate which is increasingly disenchanted and distrustful of government, in the wake of financial crises and austerity regimes, the rise of multinational companies, and growing income inequality....
