scholarly journals Expectations and Challenges in the Labour Market in the Context of Industrial Revolution 4.0. The Agglomeration Method-Based Analysis for Poland and Other EU Member States

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 5437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin J. Piątkowski

Technological revolution brings forth major changes in the labour market as well as the necessity to adapt to the shifting conditions on the part of both employees and entrepreneurs. This notion fits in with the European Policy of “Lifelong Learning” which presents the necessity to constantly improve skills and participate in the process of learning through the entire period of professional engagement. The aim of the article is to diagnose the current situation in the labour market and expectations towards employees as a result of the technological revolution and digitization, and to analyze whether there are groups of countries in the EU with similar features describing the labour market and to present the differences between these groups. The study uses research methods based on literature research, content analysis and comparative analysis, and the empirical part uses cluster analysis—the Ward method, using secondary statistical data from the Eurostat database. It was verified which groups of the Member States exhibited similarities to the extent of: forms of employment; work productivity; commitment of entrepreneurs and employees to the process of continuing vocational training (CVT) and lifelong learning; educating future employees of the economy at the level of higher education (HE) in STEM fields and development of digital skills as well as commitment of governments of each EU Member State to financing research and development in higher education institutions (HEIs). It may be ascertained that the average values of variables describing the pattern followed by “new” Member States which joined the EU in 2004 or later are, in majority, lower than the values of the same variables describing the pattern followed by the “old” Member States. It cannot be unambiguously stated that the affiliation with the Eurozone in any way determined whether a given group of Member States is better or worse than the other. The resulting figures may become significant at the stage of developing the employment policy as well as the education policy and the professional career development policy in the respective Member States. Those results may be applied to both evaluation and planning of actions to be taken against the background of the development strategy in order to reduce clearly visible inequalities between the European Union Member States.

Author(s):  
Dorota Dakowska

Whether higher education (HE) can be defined as a European Union (EU) policy has been matter of debate. Formally, education is still a domestic prerogative, and in principle, the EU can only support and supplement national governments’ initiatives in the sector. Yet, this official division of tasks has been challenged in many ways over the last decades. First, the history of European integration shows that the European community took an early interest in educational matters. The Treaty of Rome established a community competency on vocational training. Subsequently, the European Commission framed HE and vocational training as two entangled policies. Second, the EU institutions, the member states, and noninstitutional actors have coordinated in innovative ways, through soft governance processes promoted by the Bologna Process and the EU Lisbon—and later Europe 2020—strategy, to impose a European HE governance based on standards and comparison. Third, the study of HE requires going beyond an EU-centric perspective, with international organizations such as the OECD and the Council of Europe cooperating closely with the European Commission. HE has been increasingly shaped by global trends, such as the increased competition between universities. The mechanisms of European HE policy change have elicited academic debates. Three main explanations have been put forward: the power of instruments and standards, the impact of the Commission’s funding schemes, and the influence of interconnected experts, stakeholders and networks. Domestic translations of European recommendations are highly diverse and reveal a gap between formal adaptations and local practices. Twenty years after the Bologna declaration, the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) presents a mixed picture. On the one hand, increased mobility and the growing interconnectedness of academic schemes facilitate the launch of ambitious projects such as the “European universities.” On the other hand, concerns are periodically raised about the growing bureaucratization of the process and the widening gap between the small world of the Brussels stakeholders and everyday academic practices in EHEA participant countries. Paradoxically, smaller and non-EU countries have been more actively involved in advancing the EHEA than large, older EU member states.


2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Zupančič

Abstract This article refers to the challenge of demographic changes gaining attention in many developed countries. The European Union recognized the need to activate older knowledge workers, who are underrepresented and pushed out of the labour market or are inadequately motivated to continue their employment for various reasons, despite their accumulated knowledge and experiences. EU member states respond differently to their ageing, with more or less successful national policies. This article is based on research of the labour market development for older knowledge workers in Slovenia compared to the Finnish age management policy at the end of the 1990s that successfully increased Finnish older knowledge workers’ employment through focused and holistic measures. Slovenia stagnated in the same period due to a lack of holistic solutions-a situation that continues today. The results and deficiencies of past bad and good practices in these two compared EU member states might offer some further reflections on possible steps to follow or avoid regarding active ageing solutions in the EU.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (9) ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
H. I. Bashnianyn ◽  
T. I. Horodyskyy ◽  
Ya. S. Lapchuk

The article deals with the current state of unemployment in Ukraine. Comparison of the unemployment rates with the European countries is conducted. The employment policy in the European Union (EU) was analyzed. The analysis and generalization of features of labour market in countries of the EU are conducted. The scientific results and tasks for further research were outlined. The actual problems of the current development of the labour market in Ukraine and countries of the EU are revealed. The main purpose of the paper is to explore the theoretical aspects of the formation of employment system and to consider the European experience of employment systems regulation in selected countries. The study revealed that in today's conditions of development of the national economy the labour market occupies an important place. One of the most important tasks of any state is defined to be the regulation of the labour market. At the present stage, the problems of the labour market become the most urgent in countries of the EU. This is due to a change in the structure of the pan-European labour market, as well as to the globalization of the world economy. The study found that overcoming unemployment and increasing employment are the main tasks of the EU. The main drivers, motivations and consequences of undeclared work in the EU are identified. The impact of the European employment strategy was studied. Regulation of EU main programs and initiatives that concern the lowering of unemployment, the main aim of which is improving of the education and employability of people was examined. Based on the analysis of the relevant European experience, challenges have been identified that should be taken into account when developing the state employment policy of Ukraine in the medium and long run periods. The recommendations regarding the borrowing of Ukraine's positive experience of the EU towards the employment policy are provided. Analysis of the labour market in the EU and Ukraine showed that the European integration of Ukraine opens the possibility for sustainable economic development. Borrowing of foreign experience will allow Ukraine to create conditions for more efficient functioning of the system of employment. The practical value of the research presented in the article is in identification of promising directions for increasing the efficiency of employment policy in Ukraine on the basis of the experience of member countries of the EU.


Author(s):  
Mirela Cristea ◽  
Graţiela Georgiana Noja ◽  
Yannis Thalassinos

The research aims to identify several dissimilarities between the European Union Member States (EU-27 MS) in terms of welfare and labour market dimensions under the sheer implications of the ageing phenomenon. The quantitative research methodology emphasizes the cluster analysis based on the Ward method, performed for the year 2018. Main results denote that only two countries (Denmark and Sweden) registered soaring performances, especially for the labour market credentials (particularly the employment rate and active policies). Other 10 EU-27 MS accounted medium performances in terms of well-being, but also the lowest achievements as regards the old dependency rate, the employment rate of persons aged 55-64 and the birth rate. This paper brings to the fore the keen need to redesign specific policies and tailored strategies by the responsible authorities and business representatives across the EU, in order to enhance achievements and new solutions for the difficulties brought by population ageing, with spillover effects on the labour market integration of older employees and overall economic welfare. The study stands out through the new integrative approach based on cluster analysis that underlines the dissimilarities between the EU member states, and the features of each group of countries, in a pre-settled framework, thus grasping the difficulties, but also the opportunities faced in terms of ageing and economic welfare.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4 (1)) ◽  
pp. 39-54
Author(s):  
Robert Grzeszczak

The issue of re-nationalization (disintegration and fragmentation) of integration process is manifested by the will of some of the Member States to verify their relations with the European Union. In the age of an economic crisis of the EU and in relation to the large migration of the population, there has emerged strong social and political criticism, on the European level, of the integration process, with some Member States even consideringtheir withdrawal from the EU. In those States, demands forextending the Member States’ competences in the field of some EU policies are becoming more and more popular. The legal effects of the above-mentioned processes are visible in the free movements of the internal market, mainly within the free movement of persons. Therefore, there are problems, such as increased social dumping process, the need to retain the output of the European labour law, the issue of the so-called social tourism, erosion of the meaning of the EU citizenship and the principle of equal treatment.


2020 ◽  
pp. 97-105
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Kusztykiewicz-Fedurek

Political security is very often considered through the prism of individual states. In the scholar literature in-depth analyses of this kind of security are rarely encountered in the context of international entities that these countries integrate. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to key aspects of political security in the European Union (EU) Member States. The EU as a supranational organisation, gathering Member States first, ensures the stability of the EU as a whole, and secondly, it ensures that Member States respect common values and principles. Additionally, the EU institutions focus on ensuring the proper functioning of the Eurozone (also called officially “euro area” in EU regulations). Actions that may have a negative impact on the level of the EU’s political security include the boycott of establishing new institutions conducive to the peaceful coexistence and development of states. These threats seem to have a significant impact on the situation in the EU in the face of the proposed (and not accepted by Member States not belonging to the Eurogroup) Eurozone reforms concerning, inter alia, appointment of the Minister of Economy and Finance and the creation of a new institution - the European Monetary Fund.


Author(s):  
Elena Sorokina

The preliminary ruling procedure is an essential feature of the EU legal system, which is a unique cooperation tool as part of the dialogue between the Court of Justice of the EU and national courts of the Member States. Its main purpose is to ensure uniform interpretation and application of the provisions of EU law with all Member States and to preserve the uniformity of the European legal system. The continuous use by national courts of the Member States of the mechanism of preliminary ruling and constructive inter-judicial cooperation, the Court of Justice has developed an extremely extensive case law on the prohibition of discrimination and with the result to introduce substantial changes in European anti-discrimination law.The preliminary rulings of the Court of Justice have shown its inclination to expand notions of what constitutes discrimination and in most cases the Court prompt by the desire to interpret the provisions of European law so as to ensure the full effectiveness of the law, as well as a willingness to promote and strengthen protection against discrimination in Europe. While the protection against discrimination on some grounds is stronger than others, however, the preliminary rulings of the Court of Justice are important contribution to the transformation of anti-discrimination law, promote change in the national legislation of the Member States and provide the more effective protection of human rights in general.


Author(s):  
Frank Vandenbroucke

This contribution argues for a truly reciprocal social investment pact for Europe: member states should be committed to policies that respond to the need for social investment; simultaneously, member states’ efforts in this direction—notably efforts by those in a difficult budgetary context—should be supported in a tangible way. Social investment is a policy perspective that should be based on a broad consensus between people who may entertain certain disagreements regarding the level of their empirical and/or normative understanding of the social world. For that reason, the expression of an ‘overlapping consensus’ is used for delineating social investment advocacy. Data on education spending show that we are far removed from a social investment perspective at the European Union (EU) level. This underscores the fact that social investment advocates need to clearly consider the role the EU has to play in social investment progress.


Author(s):  
Frank Schimmelfennig ◽  
Thomas Winzen

Differentiated integration is a durable feature of the European Union and a major alternative for its future development and reform. This book provides a comprehensive conceptual, theoretical and empirical analysis of differentiation in European integration. It explains differentiation in EU treaties and legislation in general and offers specific accounts of differentiation in the recent enlargements of the EU, the Euro crisis, the Brexit negotiations and the integration of non-member states. Differentiated integration is a legal instrument that European governments use regularly to overcome integration deadlock in EU treaty negotiations and legislation. Instrumental differentiation adjusts integration to the heterogeneity of economic preferences and capacities, particularly in the context of enlargement. By contrast, constitutional differentiation accommodates concerns about national self-determination. Whereas instrumental differentiation mainly affects poorer (new) member states, constitutional differentiation offers wealthier and nationally oriented member states opt-outs from the integration of core state powers. The book shows that differentiated integration has facilitated the integration of new policies, new members and even non-members. It has been mainly ‘multi-speed’ and inclusive. Most differentiations end after a few years and do not discriminate against member states permanently. Yet differentiation is less suitable for reforming established policies, managing disintegration, and fostering solidarity, and the path-dependency of core state power integration may lead to permanent divides in the Union.


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