ABSTRACT
There are a number of fundamental rights that are instrumental in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. This is most clearly the case of rights that grant individuals access to adequate social protection or a certain standard of living. This chapter looks into the role of some of these provisions in the context of EU law. To this end, it first explores a number of procedural limitations of EU fundamental right law and the difficult interaction with other sources of fundamental rights protection. It then argues that the recently adopted EPSR might contain some important features to tackle a number of these deficiencies. It then goes on to study the substantive content of a number of rights as interpreted by different authoritative bodies. In particular, it analyses the right to social security, social assistance and fair working conditions as protected by the Court of Justice of the EU, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Human Rights. The last section concludes with some final remarks.
