Documents Lenaerts, Karolien 27 results

"On behalf of EZA social dialogue work programme 2021/22, this report focuses on the socio-economic governance of the EU and the institutional management of three key political projects: the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), the European Green Deal (EGD), and the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRP) to be implemented in the Member States in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. On the basis of this political background, the report seeks to identify venues as well as opportunities and barriers for social dialogue involvement and trade union participation. This approach allows the development of recommended actions that can be used by workers' organisations as part of the social dialogue to pursue sustained effective actions in the European governance framework as well as to strategically contribute with their knowledge and experience to the key political projects listed above."

"Industry 5.0 is a relatively new topic and not yet well-defined. This article's purpose is to develop understanding of Industry 5.0 by offering a new socio-centric conceptual framework. It extends prevailing perception of Industry 5.0 by integrating workforce skills, labour shortages, and eco-digital shifts. The study explores workforce skill measurement and its implementation. Three methods were combined to develop the conceptual framework: (i) review of academic and policy literature; (ii) scholarly and expert discussions; (iii) consultations with practitioners, companies and networks on Industry 5.0's relevance. Industry 5.0 expands Industry 4.0's technology-focused approach. This new paradigm emphasises human-centricity, sustainability and resilience, infusing societal values into organisational management. Our findings suggest that, while firmly rooted in EU policy, Industry 5.0 must find integration at national levels and within pertinent ecosystems. This article introduces innovative perspectives on conceptualising and evaluating workforce skills for Industry 5.0. Mitigating skills gaps is crucial in enabling companies and employees to leverage the eco-digital shift, fostering sustainability, resilience and equity across Europe. A limitation to understanding Industry 5.0 is that policy discussions run ahead of collecting empirical data. As a consequence, one must be careful in drawing firm conclusions. While prior research underscores the need for skilled workforces in Industry 5.0, it falls short of elucidating evolving job dynamics in the Industry 5.0 transition. This article addresses this gap by examining the evolving job landscape, skills, and learning trajectories."

"In this extensive report, we assess how a European unemployment benefit scheme (EUBS) could be designed. To this end, we examine 18 EUBS variants, 4 equivalent and 14 genuine schemes, and their key features. Some of these features can also be found in national unemployment benefit schemes, while others are more related to the EUBS context. We analyse the design of a common EUBS in previous literature and combine these insights with results for the legal and operational options as well as constraints and the economic value added obtained as part of our study on the “Feasibility and Added Value of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme”. All this information is integrated into a summary fiche for each of the 18 EUBS variants studied. In addition, the report deals with a range of policy issues including convergence, minimum requirements and accession criteria."

"This CEPS e-Book presents the final report of a comprehensive project on the Feasibility and Added Value of a European Unemployment Benefits Scheme, initiated by the European Parliament and commissioned by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. The aim of the study is to assess the legal and operational feasibility of introducing a European unemployment benefits scheme (EUBS), as well as the economic added value that such as scheme could bring. Some 18 different variants of an EUBS are analysed in terms of their design, legal and operational challenges and economic effects. The study presents the most comprehensive work on the subject to date. For each of these 18 variants, the impact on the individual member states, EMU and the EU has been examined. The 18 variants vary across a range of features, such as the replacement rate and caps used, the duration of unemployment benefits and the eligibility conditions that apply. If an EUBS were to be selected as one of the potential stabilisation mechanisms to explore further, this study provides evidence and insights on the barriers ahead and different ways to deal with them."

"In the aftermath of the Great Recession, there has been a widespread call for reform of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), as it became clear that its current institutional architecture lacks an automatic stabilisation mechanism to prevent and mitigate the effects of economic shocks. A European unemployment benefits scheme (EUBS) has long been discussed as one potential stabilisation mechanism. In this report, we explore this option in more depth. We start from 18 EUBS variants, of two types – equivalent and genuine – for which we assess the legal and operational feasibility of introducing these schemes and the added value that they would bring. Our analysis focuses on added value in terms of macroeconomic stabilisation as well as the potential contribution to labour mobility and Europe's social dimension. The feasibility assessment covers legal and operational options and constraints at the national and EU levels. The report further devotes attention to important challenges such as institutional moral hazard, permanent transfers and EUBS implementation."

"This study traces the integration experience of Bosnian refugees from the Balkan wars with the aim of drawing lessons for the current wave of refugees entering Europe. Integration is a slow-moving process. Looking closely at Bosnian refugees enables us to see past immediate integration outcomes and take a longer-term view. Another consideration in the design of this study is that there is significant overlap among the countries affected by the two refugee crises. Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden all saw a large absolute and relative influx of refugees in both 2015 and in the years between 1992 and 1995, when the largest share of Bosnians arrived in Western Europe. The study carries out an in-depth examination of their labour market integration in those five countries."

"As a result of technological progress and economic change, many new occupations have emerged in the labour market, while others have become redundant and disappeared. Along with these new and emerging occupations, new skills have been introduced that can be developed through formal education, on-the-job training or learning-by-doing (or in some other way). This paper presents the Occupations Observatory, which we have created with the aim of providing up-to-date information on these changes in the labour market – reflected in the rise of new occupations and their corresponding skill changes – to policy-makers, researchers, educational institutes, job seekers and many other stakeholders (and how occupational dynamics feed into the occupational classification schemes). We focus not only on new occupations that did not exist before but also on new occupations in terms of recognition, awareness and importance.



This paper was written within the framework of the InGRID project. Funded by the European Union's 7th Framework Programme for Research, the InGRID project (Inclusive Growth Research Infrastructure Diffusion) involves 17 European partners, including CEPS. It aims to integrate and innovate existing, but distributed European social sciences research infrastructures on ‘Poverty and Living Conditions' and ‘Working Conditions and Vulnerability' by providing transnational data access, organising mutual knowledge exchange activities and improving methods and tools for comparative research."

"The last few years have witnessed the exponential growth of platforms like Uber and Airbnb and the creation of countless other less well-known examples. The expansion of the on-demand economy puts huge pressure on regulators to adapt it to the existing frameworks for labour and taxation. The rapid growth of the sector also divides experts: it is seen by many as threat for working conditions, and by others as an incredible opportunity.

The purpose of this essay is to take a balanced perspective on what we know about the on-demand economy and what needs further investigation. More research is needed on the individual cases before one can draw conclusions on how this new sector works. The political economy of the sector is made even more interesting by the fact that the technology is developing faster than the regulation. Yet, our plea to policy-makers is to refrain from legislating too early and to take the time to understand how the supply and the demand of these services behave and their equilibrium.

This CEPS Essay presents groundbreaking work on the on-demand economy, drawing on the most salient findings debated during the CEPS Winter School “From Uber to Amazon Mechanical Turk: Non-traditional labour markets driven by technological and organisational change”, 23-25 November 2015, financed by the InGRID FP7 project. For more information and to download the presentations, please visit: www.ceps.eu/content/2015-winter-school.
https://www.ceps.eu/system/files/CEPS%20Essay%20No%2021%20On%20Demand%20Economy.pdf"

"After the crisis, the longstanding debate on a European unemployment benefits scheme (EUBS) was revived as part of a much larger debate on the need for a supranational automatic stabilisation function for Europe. The American unemployment insurance (UI) system, given its two-tier structure, has often been regarded as a model for a potential EUBS. Previous research has examined the lessons to be learned from the US UI. This paper builds on this literature but goes one step further as it carefully assesses whether the lessons from the US system could actually be implemented in a European context. Indeed, while there are important parallels between the US and the EU in some areas, significant differences in others may complicate implementation or even render it impossible. In this paper, the aim, therefore, is to identify the aspects of the US system to draw inspiration from – in light of the EU's institutional and political realities – and explain how they inform a potential EUBS. This exercise concentrates on the design and implementation of a potential EUBS. The paper highlights that a two-tier system helps to better attain the goals of unemployment insurance, as demonstrated by the American experience. It also shows the advantages of being pragmatic and taking an incentives-based approach. Other issues, such as solidarity and redistribution, seem more difficulty to tackle in Europe than in the American context and would require further examination. Finally, discretionary measures should be considered with caution."