Reshaping Employment Regimes in Europe: Policy Shifts Alongside Boundary Change

Abstract

This paper surveys the direction of change to employment regimes in the EU, in which fiscal consolidation constitutes the macro-economic foundations to labour markets in virtually every member-state. Attempting to address budget deficits has had important spillover effects, most notably on the conduct of pay determination. In particular, multi-tier bargaining in Europe has been revived not to conclude the social corporatist deals of the past but to reorient labour market behaviour to the introduction of a single currency. Support systems for the unemployed are also experiencing wide-ranging reforms across the EU: governments are attempting to shift expenditure from passive measures to more direct initiatives to help people get back to work. The prospect for closer cross-national collaboration on labour market matters has increased by Brussels launching a programme to benchmark employment policies across the EU. Together, these changes are streamlining Social Europe and reorganising the sovereign boundaries of economic citizenship.