ETUI-REHS Research / Employment and Economi... / Projects /

More, better and sustainable jobs

from lip service to realization of Lisbon goals - also in Denmark

Description

The unemployment crisis in the 1990s resulted in an ambitious EU policy action plan. The so-called Lisbon strategy was launched at the European summit in Lisbon in 2000. It is a broad reform programme which aims at making the EU the most competitive dynamic economy in the world, able to create more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.

The Lisbon strategy is midway. Has it worked? The mid-term review in March 2005 gave a rather mixed result. Economically, the EU is underperforming. Big countries in the euro-zone are showing depressing results. There is serious lack of confidence in the economy from the side of the industry and as well as consumers. Growth perspectives are scaled down. The EU economy is far from self-reliant. By contrast, it is increasingly dependent on export, which means that it ultimately relies on consumer spending in the US. Also in terms of creating "social Europe", progress is slow. Unemployment is on the rise. Precarious jobs are rising. Insecurity, and fear that worse is yet to come, are not only catchwords, but an unacceptable reality for a high number of working families.

On the positive note, as interpreted by the EU-Commission, the internal market regulation has over the last two decades become the hard-core of all EU policy. It has lead to implementation of many structural reforms, also in the labour market. Yet, in actual fact, structural reforms are a masked word for deregulation: increased wage inequalities, reduced bargaining power of labour unions, wage moderation and increased insecurity for workers. An important aspect (and yet often forgotten) the reforms seem to have curbed domestic consumption which is the main driver of growth in the economy: people become increasingly worried about their future and start precautionary saving, against further structural reforms.

In brief, the alleged economic benefits have not (yet?) materialized. If structural reforms had worked, the euro-zone would be on a high growth path today. Intriguingly, it is the Nordic countries which are most successful. They have high growth and high productivity and spend most on social issues and have a tradition of strong labour market institutions.

EU is at a crossroad. Will the liberal approach favouring more structural reform continue to dominate? (ignoring the paradox that reforms have been performed at an extensive scale, whereas the productivity growth is stagnating). Or are there viable alternative views?

We believe that the failure of structural reforms opens a policy window. The project for better, more and sustainable jobs attempts to turns this to our advantage and influence policy makers at EU level, primarily the European Trade Union Confederation. Equally important is an influence on the national policy arena.

We argue that the Lisbon Strategy needs both economic rethinking and employment revitalization. The project sets out to analyze a way for the Lisbon strategy to reach the objective of full employment. How to go from lip service to a real policy option. Furthermore, it will analyze how to improve the implementation of European social, economic and employment policy guidelines at national level.

Another part of the project will concentrate more specifically on the Danish context. It will to analyze the new regional policy for creating bigger regions. What effect will that have on the Danish flexicurity model? Will the sensitive balance between security and flexibility on the labour market be breached? What will be the new role and participation of social partners?

More concretely, the project for more, better and sustainable jobs will lead to a set of recommendations, based on a analytical research, which should contribute to the ongoing debate on the future policies on employment, economy and labour market in the EU as a whole, as well as in Denmark.

"More, better and sustainable jobs" is a research project dealing with employment friendly policies, formalized in the Lisbon strategy of the EU, and the relationship between European aspects of these and Danish ones. Both general and selective policies are examined. Specific Danish labour market conditions will be analyzed as well and policy recommandations made as to more active labour market and employment policies. The right for employees in the Danish model to "flexicurity" - flexibility and security at the same time - will be examined.

The project is carried out by researchers in the ETUI-REHS, Research Department, with professional assistance by Per Kongshøj Madsen, Flemming Larsen and Thomas Bredgaard, CARMA, the Danish LO and FTF are financing the project.

Project related papers and publications

In English:

In Danish:

Researchers

Henning  Jørgensen

Director of the ETUI-REHS Research Department, Personnel Director of the ETUI-REHS
phone: +32 (0) 2 224 05 00

Publications

Last modified: 22/09/2005 12:01 pm

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