Documents van Gerven, Minna 5 results

"The European Employment Strategy (EES) has opened up new dynamics of Europeanization in the area of social policy. This article proposes to pay more attention to national core executives and their strategic use of the EES when considering its impact. Through core executives, the EES may not only affect domestic policy agendas, but also decision-making on reform. A comparative case study of activating employment policy reforms in the Netherlands and Germany evaluates expectations about how these agents upload and download ideas to and from the EU level. The findings indicate that uploading is facilitated by holding the EU presidency and a good fit with EES prescriptions, while downloading does not seem to depend on prior uploading and degree of fit but on other domestic factors. True strategic use of the EES by core executives following a sequence of uploading and downloading appears to be contingent on several contextual factors."

"It is now widely accepted that the interaction between the EU and its Member States is a two-way process: European governments are not simply confronted with initiatives that emanate from Brussels, but are actively involved in their formulation. Therefore, when analysing policies that are promoted at the European level – such as policies aimed at activating unemployed people to return to work – the development of these policies should not be analysed at only the national level. This paper examines the Netherlands' shaping of activation ideas and policies (‘uploading' them to the EU) and its taking up of such ideas or policies (‘downloading' them from the EU, or implementing them). Our research specifically aimed at establishing whether the Dutch have tried to upload ideas, interests or institutions to the EU agenda, and to what extent the policies originating from the EU have been implemented in the Netherlands. To this end, we analysed national documents and the literature, and conducted interviews with the key policy makers involved in the creation of employment policies at both the national and the EU level. Although we found that the Dutch have been rather successful in uploading some ideas to the European agenda – namely, the promotion of social policy as a productive factor for economic policy and the ‘active and preventive' approach for the unemployed – we could not find evidence of the uploading of particular policies or policy instruments. The policies established at the EU level have been reasonably well transposed to Dutch politics."

"Seeking to contribute to the vivid discussion on welfare state change, this analysis takes a comparative look at changes in the rights and conditions of social security (unemployment, sickness and disability, and social assistance benefit) programmes in the UK, the Netherlands and Finland between 1980 and 2006. The study analyses 1) what has happened to the eligibility and entitlement rights and conditions in these European countries and programmes since 1980, 2) whether there are similar trends in benefit reform across countries and programmes, and 3) what the changes tell us about the scope and direction of welfare state reform in Europe. The data consist of national legislation and other primary sources. The results indicate that the benefit rules have been under constant revision during the last 26 years. The changes in the examined countries and programmes suggest four common European trends in benefit reform: 1) increased work-relatedness, 2) increased activation, 3) increased targeting, and 4) reduced benefit generosity. These trends in benefit reform suggest a convergence of policy goals. Yet, the more one goes into detail, the more divergence one finds. An in-depth analysis shows that the countries follow specific national development paths in how they adapt to new changes: while the UK social policy arrangements have returned to favouring minimum protection, the Dutch programmes still aim at the preservation of insurance protection for waged workers, and in the Finnish reforms, an attempt is being made to avoid radical changes in basic security. Further, the study shows that some countries and programmes have undergone more change than others. The most significant individual reforms have been implemented in the UK at the country level, and in the disability benefit programmes at the programme level. One also finds variations in the scope of reform across different types of benefit recipients. It is often the young, the long-term unemployed, or people with partial work incapacity who bear the brunt of reform measures. The conclusion is that, over time, the reform of social security benefit rights follows rather closely the traditionally chosen routes. There is, however, more room for manouvre in these path dependent benefit reforms than is often suggested in the literature. "

"One year after the European work–life balance directive, which recognises the need for work–family policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began shaping parents' work–life balance in significant ways. Academically, we are challenged to explore whether existing theoretical frameworks hold in this new environment with combined old and new policy frameworks. We are also challenged to understand the nuanced ways in which the first lockdown affects the combination of paid work and care. We address both of these issues, providing a cross-sectional comparative analysis of highly educated mothers' perceptions of work–life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland and the Netherlands. Our findings show that highly educated Finnish mothers have more difficulty combining work and care during the first lockdown than Dutch mothers. The absence of state-provided care during the lockdown creates greater difficulty for full-time working Finnish mothers in a dual-earner/state-carer system than an absence of such care in the Dutch one-and-a-half earner system, where most mothers work part time. Further analyses suggest variation in part-time and (nearly) full-time hours mitigates the work–life balance experiences of highly educated Dutch mothers. Additional factors explaining cross-country variation or similarities include the presence of young children and the presence of a partner. We discuss these findings in light of current theoretical frameworks and highlight avenues for future research."

"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented health crisis that has caused far-reaching life consequences. The impact of COVID-19 and the measures that aimed to protect lives have triggered a social and economic crisis across the globe. This crisis calls for social scientists and researchers to study the shortcomings in social and economic preparedness and responses to the pandemic. The Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groups in the Post-COVID-19 Labour Markets project (the DEFEN-CE project), funded by the Directorate-General for Employment, the European Commission, aims to examine institutional strategies and power relations in social protection and policymaking and policy implementation to protect labour markets and workers by analysing the governance of vulnerable groups in (post) COVID-19 labour markets as well as to produce research-based knowledge and expertise on the protection of vulnerable groups at the EU level, in the EU Member States and in the candidate countries. This report emphasises the institutional strategies and power relations among social partners and stakeholders at the EU level and highlights key findings from country case studies. The research questions are threefold.
1) What public policy and social dialogue measures targeting the selected vulnerable groups were implemented for employment and social protection during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020–2022?
2) How and to what extent did social dialogue play a role in the implementation of the social and employment rights of selected vulnerable groups in the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022?
3) What lessons and opportunities does the COVID-19 pandemic provide for strengthening social dialogue at the EU level?

DEFEN-CE employed a mixed-method approach combining both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The data are comprised of datasets, policy documents, scientific literature, existing statistical data, and semi-structured interviews. In this EU-level research, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 respondents: representatives from the European Parliament, trade unions, non-governmental organisations, and a European federation organisation representing domestic employers. It is important to note that the research team invited representatives from the European Commission to participate in the interviews but received no reply. (See the list of respondents in the appendices).

DEFEN-CE's EU-level study aimed to contribute to social dialogue research and the theoretical understanding of vulnerability. Relevant concepts and approaches to deepen our understanding of vulnerability are employed as the foundation for identifying ‘vulnerable groups' in connection to the labour market. Furthermore, the purpose of this study is to identify the lessons learned by pinpointing crucial areas of policy development and implementation and necessary coordination mechanisms among social partners and by showcasing best practices."