Enhancing the Effectiveness of Social Dialogue Articulation in Europe (EESDA) Project No. VS/2017/0434 Comparative policy recommendations on improving social dialogue articulation and effectiveness in Europe

The history of European social dialogue dates back to the mid-1980s with the Val Duchesse social dialogue initiative by the European Commission. The aim then was to involve social partners in the internal market process. This initiative was followed by the Single European Act of 1986, which served as the legal basis of the community-wide social dialogue and established a steering committee, which then became the main bipartite body, known as the European Social Dialogue Committee. Following the Act of 1986, another turning point in the history of social dialogue was the Treaty of Maastricht in 1991, which paved the way for agreements negotiated by social partners to become legally binding by means of a Council decision. Later, the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997 included an Agreement on Social Policy representing the single common framework for social dialogue across all Member States, resulting in the implementation of a cross-industry Framework Agreement on Parental Leave (1996)3, Part-time Work (1997)4 and Fixed-term Work (1999)5 as Council directives. The Lisbon Treaty of 2009 further emphasised the need for autonomy and diversity within the social partnership in Europe

Presence and expression of hydrogenase specific C-terminal endopeptidases in cyanobacteria

BACKGROUND: Hydrogenases catalyze the simplest of all chemical reactions: the reduction of protons to molecular hydrogen or vice versa. Cyanobacteria can express an uptake, a bidirectional or both NiFe-hydrogenases. Maturation of those depends on accessory proteins encoded by hyp-genes. The last maturation step involves the cleavage of a ca. 30 amino acid long peptide from the large subunit by a C-terminal endopeptidase. Until know, nothing is known about the maturation of cyanobacterial NiFe-hydrogenases. The availability of three complete cyanobacterial genome sequences from strains with either only the uptake (Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133/PCC 73102), only the bidirectional (Synechocystis PCC 6803) or both NiFe-hydrogenases (Anabaena PCC 7120) prompted us to mine these genomes for hydrogenase maturation related genes. In this communication we focus on the presence and the expression of the NiFe-hydrogenases and the corresponding C-terminal endopeptidases, in the three strains mentioned above. RESULTS: We identified genes encoding putative cyanobacterial hydrogenase specific C-terminal endopeptidases in all analyzed cyanobacterial genomes. The genes are not part of any known hydrogenase related gene cluster. The derived amino acid sequences show only low similarity (28–41%) to the well-analyzed hydrogenase specific C-terminal endopeptidase HybD from Escherichia coli, the crystal structure of which is known. However, computational secondary and tertiary structure modeling revealed the presence of conserved structural patterns around the highly conserved active site. Gene expression analysis shows that the endopeptidase encoding genes are expressed under both nitrogen-fixing and non-nitrogen-fixing conditions. CONCLUSION: Anabaena PCC 7120 possesses two NiFe-hydrogenases and two hydrogenase specific C-terminal endopeptidases but only one set of hyp-genes. Thus, in contrast to the Hyp-proteins, the C-terminal endopeptidases are the only known hydrogenase maturation factors that are specific. Therefore, in accordance with previous nomenclature, we propose the gene names hoxW and hupW for the bidirectional and uptake hydrogenase processing endopeptidases, respectively. Due to their constitutive expression we expect that, at least in cyanobacteria, the endopeptidases take over multiple functions

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Social Dialogue Articulation in Europe (EESDA) Project No. VS/2017/0434 Social Dialogue Articulation and Effectiveness: Country Report for France

This report presents a country study analysing the articulation and effectiveness of social dialogue in France. The methodological approach relies on desk research and semi-structured interviews with social partners in France, aiming at obtaining deeper insights into how issues are articulated in French social dialogue, actors are interacting, and how social dialogue outcomes are achieved – and ultimately implemented. Following a brief historical background on the industrial relations system and the evolutions in the French context after a series of reforms, the report then provides both a cross-sectoral overview of social dialogue articulation and the interaction with European-level social dialogue. It also offers a sectoral perspective by looking at four sectors with a particular focus on four occupations within these sectors: commerce (sales agents), construction (construction workers), education (teachers) and healthcare (nurses). The research suggests a diversity of experiences both in cross-sectoral and sectoral social dialogue articulation and their effectiveness depending on the type of actor (e.g. trade unions, employer organisations, etc.) and on the sector of focus. The perceptions of social dialogue effectiveness are mixed in the face of continuous reforms over the last decades. Interactions with European-level social dialogue and social partners is considered as important (particularly in some sectors), but the intensity of the interaction is limited when it comes to involvement in the European Semester process

On the stability of network structures with public goods

This paper explores the formation of stable network structures in a model with public goods. The multiplicity of equilibria in the non-cooperative formulation of network formation games brings out further difficulties in analyzing stability of network structures. This contrasts with the cooperative game approach where payoffs for agents are predetermined and thereby the multiplicity of equilibrium issues are sidestepped. We took issue with the multiplicity of equilibrium effort levels exerted on a given network structure, and we suggested different stability definitions for such network structures under multiplicity of equilibria. We demonstrated how these stability notions work for the network structures with four agents where breaking and forming links is costless, and the cost of exerting effort level is linear.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Social Dialogue Articulation in Europe (EESDA) Project No. VS/2017/0434 Stakeholders’ views on and experiences with the articulation of social dialogue and its effectiveness

This report studies the articulation and effectiveness of social dialogue at the European and national levels. It provides an overview of the existing social dialogue structures describing the main actors involved. The overall approach of the study is actor-centred in the sense that the interactions and perception of actors are in the core of this research. The analysis also takes into account the multilevel governance structure in Europe by considering the interaction and vertical/horizontal articulation of social dialogue between the EU and national levels. The study also benefits from original data collection comprised of several layers including both the EU and national levels and through at least two methods. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with European social partners as well as with national social stakeholders in a selection of six Member States. Second, an EU-wide online survey collected responses from national social partners in 27 Member States. The remainder of the analysis is complemented with desk research

Corporate Sector Debt Composition and Exchange Rate Balance Sheet Effect in Turkey

This paper investigates the causes and balance sheet effect consequences of the liability dollarisation of non-financial sectors in Turkey using the Company Accounts database compiled by the Central Bank of Turkey. The results from the panel EGLS and GMM procedures suggest that both sector-specific (tangibility, leverage ratio, export share) and macroeconomic condition variables (inflation, real exchange rate change, budget deficits and confidence) are significant in explaining the corporate sector liability dollarisation. Firms are found to match only partially the currency composition of their debt with their income streams making them potentially vulnerable to negative balance sheet affects of real exchange rate depreciation shocks. Consistent with this argument, real exchange rate depreciations are found to be contractionary, in terms of investments and profits, for sectors with higher liability dollarisation. Macroeconomic instability, as proxied by budget deficits and inflation, appears to have a significant negative affect on the performance of the firms in the non-financial sectors, in terms of their investments, sales and profits. Our results also stress the importance of strong macroeconomic policy stance and price stability for an endogenous dedollarisation process along with regulatory measures to limit vulnerabilities caused by dollarisation.Balance sheet effects, Capital structure, Corporate sector, Debt composition, Liability dollarisation, Turkey

Labour Market and Social Policy. CEPS Policy Priorities for 2019-2024, 4 October 2019

The mega-trends of digitalisation and automation have already changed labour markets and value chains around the world, with their inevitable economic and social consequences. And the pace of change is accelerating; job markets and skills requirements are evolving faster than traditional labour market practices and institutions. But what exactly are these changes, and how will governments, industry leaders, social partners and workers react to them

Corporate Sector Debt Composition and Exchange Rate Balance Sheet Effect in Turkey

This paper investigates the causes and balance sheet effect consequences of the liability dollarisation of non-financial sectors in Turkey using the Company Accounts database compiled by the Central Bank of Turkey. The results from the panel EGLS and GMM procedures suggest that both sector-specific (tangibility, leverage ratio, export share) and macroeconomic condition variables (inflation, real exchange rate change, budget deficits and confidence) are significant in explaining the corporate sector liability dollarisation. Firms are found to match only partially the currency composition of their debt with their income streams making them potentially vulnerable to negative balance sheet affects of real exchange rate depreciation shocks. Consistent with this argument, real exchange rate depreciations are found to be contractionary, in terms of investments and profits, for sectors with higher liability dollarisation. Macroeconomic instability, as proxied by budget deficits and inflation, appears to have a significant negative affect on the performance of the firms in the non-financial sectors, in terms of their investments, sales and profits. Our results also stress the importance of strong macroeconomic policy stance and price stability for an endogenous dedollarisation process along with regulatory measures to limit vulnerabilities caused by dollarisation.Balance sheet effects, Capital structure, Corporate sector, Debt composition, Liability dollarisation, Turkey

Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in the Age of Collaborative Economy (IRSDACE). National Report France. 21 December 2018

The IRSDACE project - Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in the Age of Collaborative Economy -, funded by DG EMPL of the European Commission, aims to identify how traditional players in the labour market, e.g. trade unions, employers' associations, member states and the EU, experience and respond to the collaborative economy. IRSDACE had five main tasks: i) conceptualisation of platform work, its place in the labour market, employment policy and industrial relations; ii) analysis of discourse on platform economy among established industrial relations actors; iii) assessment of the implications of workers’ experience with the platform economy for industrial relations and social dialogue; iv) comparative analysis of national experiences; and v) analysis of how EU-level employment policy and the industrial relations agenda should respond to the emergence of work in the platforms economy. One of the project’s initial difficulties and findings relates directly to the name collaborative. It has become clear to the research partners that this new reality encompasses many situations where no collaboration (nor sharing) takes place. Hence, the partners have opted for the use of the neutral term platform economy. Nevertheless, when contacting platform workers or national stakeholders, the researchers were faced with the need to use the corresponding local language terms of collaborative or sharing economy as these are the names known to the general public. We therefore recommend that these terms are treated as synonyms in the context of the IRSDACE results. Seven country case studies have been produced in this project covering Belgium, France, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Spain and Denmark. The country case studies were prepared based on literature reviews, interviews and country focus groups. The methods used as well as the results for each country are described in each individual report. The reports show both the perspectives of industrial relations actors at the national level and the experiences of platform workers. A final project output brings the national case study results together in a comparative study. The project started in January 2017, finishing in December 2018. CEPS is the project coordinator in a partnership with IZA (DE), FAOS at the University of Copenhagen (DK), Fundación Alternativas (ES) and CELSI (SK)