Governance and Concerted Regulation of Employment in Europe

This article analyses the changes and challenges involved in the governance of employment in the EU-15 over the past decade. Several interrelated changes are examined: the European Employment Strategy; social pacts at national level; and bipartite bargaining covering employment issues. One can argue that raising employment levels currently constitutes a consensus-making factor at European level and within countries, but that there is a progressive shift in the rules of the game: we are witnessing both procedural and substantive changes in the governance of labour markets.