Austerity-Driven Labour Market Reforms in Southern Europe: Eroding the Security of Labour Market Insiders

The sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone and increased pressures for ‘structural reform’ have led to a period of intensive change in labour market policy in Southern Europe. Examining the cases of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, this article focuses on the security of labour market insiders, a key group in labour markets that is highly segmented. Th e security of labour market insiders is conceptualised as consisting of security in employment (protection against dismissals) and security in unemployment (protection against drops in income provided by unemployment insurance and assistance). Using changes in national laws, the article charts and compares labour market change along these two dimensions across these four Southern European countries. Because labour market reform has not been restricted to Southern Europe, the article also compares these developments to broader changes in the countries of the Eurozone, using OECD and MISSOC data. Having demonstrated the degree to which the security of labour market insiders has diminished, the article concludes with an agenda for research on the policy dynamics of Southern European labour market reform in the wake of the fi nancial crisis

Are you being served? The consultation procedure on the functioning of the European Company Statute

After a decision-making process lasting 30 years, the EU Council finally adopted the general principles for a Regulation on the Statute for a European Company (Societas Europaea, hereafter SE) and the Directive with regard to the involvement of employees in European Companies (SE Directive) in December 2000. The main purpose was to enable companies to operate their businesses on a cross-border basis in Europe under the same corporate regime. The SE legislation entered into force on 8 October 2004 and, by mid-2007, all EU countries had transposed it into national law.The SE Regulation required the European Commission to present a report on its application, including proposals for amendments where appropriate, five years after its entry into force. DG Internal Market and Services commissioned Ernst & Young to carry out this study. The study report was finalized in December 2009 and published on the Commission’s website in March 2010. In spring 2010, the Commission launched an online consultation via its website to test the results of this study (European Commission, 2010a), while at the same time organizing a conference on the SE statute. The aim of these activities was to examine the findings of the Ernst & Young study and to provide the Commission with input on issues relevant for the assessment (European Commission, 2010b). Consultation participation was modest: the Commission received 57 different responses, with two groups dominating: business consultants and academia. This article is a follow-up to an earlier critical assessment of the procedure used