Il campo di applicazione del diritto del lavoro dell'Unione Europea tra lavoro subordinato e autonomo

The relationship between subordinate work and self-employment is one of the most interesting topics for labour lawyers. Many academics, both in the past and recently, have questioned the imbalance of protections that sees the subordinate workers as the privileged beneficiary of working and social security rights, while the latter excluded from most of them. A topic that in the last two decades became pivotal at the European level, especially following the changes in the labour market and technological innovations that have increased the number of vulnerable self-employed workers in the EU. Given the interest of the European institutions, this survey aims at investigating the role of European labour law in extending the scope of protection and rights towards self-employment. Specifically, the research deals with the classification of dependent self-employment, proposing the introduction of an intermediate category within European Labour law. The latter considered as a privileged vehicle to raise the level of protection of these workers, more and more integrated functionally and operationally into the client's company. During the research we will focus on areas where European labour law has already extended the scope of application towards self-employment, leading to a rapprochement with subordinate work, and then looking to other subjects where these extensions could be possible at EU level.