Governments and social partners in the EuropeanUnion (EU) look for ways and means to adapt welfare systems to new needs, to keep expenditure under control, and to find alternative and supplementary financial resources in order to cope with future financial commitments. The EU is actively involved in the search for solutions to these common problems. It becomes more and more evident that only an active economic, budgetary, taxation and social policy mix can provide a solid base for safeguarding social systems. The author presents the most recent figures relating to actual and future social protection expenditure in the EU, disaggregated according to function and showing significant differences between gross and net figures. Attention is also paid to coverage and replacement rates of social benefits and to the availability of social infrastructures. The article then shows the shifts in implicit tax rates on labour in comparison with the rate on other factors. The conclusion outlines a European trade union view on the future of social protection in Europe and suggests possible issues for social benchmarking.D uring the years following the Second World War, successive governments and the social partners (trade unions and employers) throughout the various European countries developed social security systems which rank amongst the most outstanding social achievements of this century. These schemes are the result of a political choice: they embody organized solidarity both between generations and between working and nonworking members of the population. They have guaranteed more or less ef-

This article presents a structured compilation of the major findings of surveys, articles and reports into the realities of the informal economy in Moldova. Comparative lessons are drawn from actions taken to address aspects of the informal economy in other European countries, with particular attention paid to what has been done in the immediate region of south-east Europe. The author looks firstly at the comparative size of the informal economy in Moldova and its major sectoral and occupational characteristics before examining the major drivers of informality. After considering the implications of the informal economy for the state and for workers, the article turns to the measures which Moldova might take in response. These are varied and many incorporate a scale of investment which Moldova - typically a poor country beset by many problems - may find difficult to access, not least in the time of the pandemic. Others, however, are low-cost measures where the primary barrier is likely to be the existence of the political will to tackle the issues that arise, not least at government level.

The Dutch trade union movement is not the largest nor the most powerful in the Western hemisphere but it is undoubtedly one of the most discussed forms of organisation in the whole trade union landscape. Several wellknown Dutch authorsincluding Visser, Klandermans, Valkenburg, Looise, Vos, Coenen and van de Vall -have cast a critical glance over the last thirty years of the Dutch trade union movement in order to assess its past, present and future. The most striking feature of their book is the interplay between multidisciplinary academic discourse and coverage of trade union activity. The openness so characteristic of Dutch society makes such a permanent dialogue possible.In the last two decades the Dutch trade union movement has undergone radical change. In response to social and economic developments and membership trends, a number of bold mergers have taken place involving both confederations and federations. In the process of social renewal the Dutch trade union movement, regardless of taboo, has played a leading role. From its centralised position it has set its stamp on important areas of decisionmaking. By its pragmatic stance it has contributed to what has been called the success of the Dutch &dquo;polder model&dquo;. The 1982 &dquo;Foundation agreement&dquo;, which laid the basis for the moderate pay developments of recent years and the remarkable growth in job creation, is one of its leading achievements.In the two works under discussion here the authors direct their gaze, on the basis of recent empirical sociological research and secondary analysis of the research findings, at the future of the trade union movement in The Netherlands. The material presented is based on conversations with Dutch trade union members, activists and leaders as well as on qualitative and quantitative international comparative research.The Dutch trade union movement is faced at the turn of the century, according to Visser, with new challenges: globalisation of the economy, the development of new economic activities, the growing power of international companies, the Europeanisation of industrial relations and, simultaneously, the growing importance of decentralised bargaining in company-level trade union activity, and the individualisation of society. The constant concern about membership (only one in four Dutch workers is unionised) throughout represents an impetus for the trade unions to work harder.Visser and Ebbinghaus show how the &dquo;institutional embeddedness&dquo; of the trade unions (national bargaining structures, co-determination in firms and joint management of the

No abstract

No abstract