Putting security at the heart of the European social pact – proposals to make flexicurity more balanced

Abstract

The concept of flexicurity opens up new avenues for rethinking our approach to social integration and security for Europe's citizens. In the current European debate, however, flexicurity is out of balance on two levels: it leans too far towards flexibility at the expense of security, and it is too focused on the labour market (and increasing employment rates) at the expense of other aspects of quality of life. This article suggests ways to rebalance flexicurity, giving more substance to ‘security’. In particular it proposes that, in addition to the mutualisation typically found in conventional social security strategies, services of general interest and time and space policies should also be developed. It recommends the negotiation of a new social pact in which all partners (not just the social partners) should have their say. The conclusion highlights the particular role of the EU in promoting harmonising measures and establishing new instruments for security and different ways of approaching public funding and investment.

Flexicurity in the European Semester: still a relevant policy concept?

“…One of the criticisms of flexicurity was that its broad definition made the concept rather ambiguous (Burroni and Keune 2011). Also, its promise of a balanced perspective on flexibility and security was contentious, most notably in cases where the concept was used to justify specific policy reforms (Keune and Jepsen 2007;Veille and Bovin 2008;Viebrock and Clasen 2009). In addition, the flexicurity concept had not yet matured into an elaborated theory and therefore lacked a solid foundation to convert ideas into balanced practices and to measure progress appropriately (Auer 2010;Bredgaard et al 2008;Burroni and Keune 2011;Keune and Serrano 2014).…”

Facing Trajectories from School to Work

“…By contrast, as mentioned by Vielle and Bonvin ( 2008 ), 'activation has been developed with the aim of increasing employment rates, and, given the ongoing modernisation of labour law, this central focus on the issue of employment means that social issues (quality of social integration and quality of life in general) are being reduced to the question of employability seen as adaptability to the needs of the labour market'. The Lisbon strategy employment targets were a 70 % employment rate for the overall population, to be reached by 2010.…”