The contents of Article 153(5) are explained in more detail in grounds 123–125 of the EU judgment of 15/4/2008 in C-268/06 (Impact), which specify that the determination of wage levels is a national matter, and “in those circumstances, in the present state of Community law, it was considered appropriate to exclude determination of the level of wages from harmonisation.” Furthermore, it is specified that the exception of Article 153(5) “must therefore be interpreted as covering measures – such as the equivalence of all or some of the constituent parts of pay and/or the level of pay in the Member States, or the setting of a minimum guaranteed Community wage – which amount to direct interference by Community law in the determination of pay within the Community.” However, it is also specified that “it cannot be extended to any question involving any sort of link with pay.” Consequently, according to the Treaty, the EU cannot interfere directly in the wage levels of individual Member States, just as the EU cannot harmonise these levels or introduce an EU minimum wage. In order to understand the EU’s competences as regards wages, it is, however, not enough to focus only on Article 153(5), because the Treaty covers other significant – and in this context relevant – competences as regards free movement within the Internal Market, as well as social and labour market policies. Via these competences, the EU does actually, to a varying extent, influence wage conditions, e.g. for migrating workers, posted workers, part-time workers, fixed-term workers, as well as temporary workers. Gender equality directives and the Working Time Directive are other significant directives relating to wage conditions. However, one important focus area is the EU’s competences related to the economy and employment.
10.3 The crisis changed the legal basis In Articles 145–149 of the Treaty, the EU is given a number of important tasks relating to the economy and employment. For example, the Council may issue recommendations to individual Member States on labourmarket reforms. However, it must be stressed that the EU does not have the competence to harmonise Member State rules in this field.
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Europe and the Nordic Collective-Bargaining Model