Hey everyone!
So this is my second blog post for International Employment Relations and this week we are looking at employment relations in Europe!
Just to give a quick background, I'm going to be referring to the EU frequently which stands for the European Union that consists of 27 member states. The EU was created to politically and economically integrate these member states of Europe in order to create a closer union between them and to create better living standards and higher levels of employment.
There are several different forms of the European social model however the Continental model is considered the most predominant. The five characteristics of this model are: fundamental social rights, social protection, social dialogue, social & employment regulation, and state responsibility.
This social model was introduced post World War II however it has recently come under attack, largely due to the rise of globalisation and its consequences. This is demonstrated through this cartoon depiction of the EU as it struggles to balance fiscal stability with economic flexibility, as well as trying to maintain their social aspects of the policy. Although it may be easy to question why they cannot achieve both together, there is evidence from member states such as Germany and France that suggest this is a very difficult task. It appears that they have chosen to focus more on stability than flexibility (as demonstrated by the cartoon) however achieving economic flexibility is crucial for the European Union in order to retain a competitive force within the world. There are fears that without reform, this social model may be inadequate and could have serious adverse impacts for Europe.
In contrast to this, there are other scholars who suggest the European social model can be sustained, however it does mean there are changes that need to be made. An executive summary made by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) states "the European social model is not doomed and the idea that only free market approaches are consistent with sustained prosperity are clearly wrong." It is stated within this source that one of the core policy changes is to achieve economic flexibility with better social protection in order to create an environment capable of making the best use of the opportunities offered by globalisation.
It is easy to argue either side of this argument regarding the future of the European social model however the difficulties lie in actually implementing changes to help balance these conflicting interests. Stability and flexibility are both important for the EU to achieve, however it is also essential to uphold these social practices that have been set in place to help protect individuals within each of the member states of the EU. The one factor that can be agreed on is the fact that changes have to be made.
I have attached the link to the executive summary made by CEPS as well as the link to the article that the cartoon was taken from which from The Economist.
I welcome you to let me know your opinion on what the EU should do in regards to the social model - should they get rid of it completely, should they keep it as it or should they make changes to it and if so, any suggestions you may have.
Hope this gave you a good introduction to next week's tutorial where Louise and I will be presenting!
Links: http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/social_situation/docs/simglobe_fin_rep_exec_sum.pdf
http://www.economist.com/node/6768443
This has been a really interesting topic to study! In my research, I discovered an article that was written in 2001 about how Europe understood that they needed a reformation in the European Social Model. A lot of it talks about the lack of policymaking the EU was able to give but goes on to explain how reformation towards more employment opportunities to reduce the growing unemployment rate in Europe would allow the EU more ability to provide social stability. One part of this article summarises really well, what the reform was designed to do.
ReplyDelete"The overall goal of the strategy is to maintain the European Social Model by reforming it. The Commission wrote in the preparatory documents for the extraordinary Luxembourg Employment Summit that "meeting the challenge of insufficient growth and intolerable unemployment requires a profound modernization of Europe's economy and its social system for the 21st century without giving away the basic principles of solidarity which should remain the trademark of Europe" (European Commission, 1997--emphasis supplied)."
To do that it goes to further dot point 8 guidelines that would help the EU and the move towards reforming the European Social Model.
1. High Employment Participation
2. More active unemployment systems
3. More skills
4. More Employment Intensive Growth
5. Few obstacles to lower-skill work
6. Flexibility with security
7. Smaller companies and Entrepreneurship
8. Gender Equality
As an overview of these reforms, it would highly suggest a convergence in the response to globalisation?
I do recon that an emphasis on training and developing more skills, and removing obstacles towards lower-skill work would help in the face of building flexibility as training is on going and technology is consistently changing which ultimately allows better work-life balance, a more dynamic labour market that is increasingly more competitive in the global market.