This ongoing project, which provides the framework for the ETUI's work on employment, will continue to monitor the development of the European Employment Strategy (EES), and in particular the involvement in it - and assessment of it - by trade unions. The purpose is two-fold: to contribute to the debate on employment policies among researchers; and to support the ETUC in the European-level policy debate. The project makes use of networks, bringing together external researchers and trade union experts, which will continue to be a central instrument for cooperation.
In 2004 the ETUI focussed not just on the institutional and procedural development of the EES, but also on the impact in one substantive policy area: reducing the tax burden on labour, particularly low-wage labour as part of so-called Make-work-pay strategies (MWP). Only limited progress was made with this to date, however, partly due to the unforeseen departure of one of the involved colleagues. Consequently a workshop on MWP is to be held in the first three months of 2005 to bring together national experts in the field to examine this issue in greater detail in various Member States.
