Social Chapter

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Chapter of the 1991 Maastricht Treaty on European Union relating to social policy. It required European Community (EC) member states to adopt common social policies and was intended to implement the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights, which was adopted by 11 EC member states, but opposed by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, at a summit meeting in Strasbourg in December 1989.

In the face of continued UK opposition, member states were given freedom of choice over whether or not to adopt it; only the UK declined to sign up to it at the time. However, Tony Blair's Labour government signed in 1997.

The Community Charter was originally proposed by the European Commissioner for Social Affairs and Employment, Vasso Papandreou, and presented at a summit meeting in Madrid in June 1989, where it was described by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as a ‘socialist charter’. Rights to be guaranteed by it included free movement throughout the EC; ‘equitable’ remuneration; a maximum number of hours per working week; free association in trade unions and collective bargaining; professional training; sex equality; minimum health and security provision; employer–employee consultation and participation; a minimum working age of 16; minimum pension rights; and protection for disabled workers.

At the 1991 summit in Maastricht, Thatcher's successor, John Major, spoke out against the Social Chapter (which embodied Papandreou's original Charter) and, after a prolonged debate, persuaded the other 11 leaders to make it an optional clause within the final version of the treaty, allowing member states to adopt it individually. It was on this basis that the UK Parliament finally ratified the Maastricht Treaty.

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