Coalitions and the Decision Making Process on the Common Flexicurity Principles

Paper af Mikkel Mailand

The debate about flexicurity, i.e. the combination of flexibility and security in the labour market, has in recent years moved beyond the individual European Union member states and into the corridors of power in Brussels. The culmination of this process was the Council of Ministers' adoption in December 2007 of a set of ‘common flexicurity principles'.

The paper analyses 1) to what extent the supporters of flexicurity, on the one hand, and the critical voices, on the other, influenced the outcome of the decision-making process of the common principles of flexicurity, and 2) if coalitions between member states, as well as between member states and other actors, influenced the decision-making process.

The analysis showed that the supporters of flexicurity succeeded in getting a set of common flexicurity principles through the EU decision-making process, but that the sceptical voices succeeded in downplaying the initial strong focus on transition from job security to employment security and the divisions between insiders and outsiders in labour market. This answer have to be seen in the context of, and in connection with, the large number of actors that changed position from sceptics to (weak or strong) supporters of flexicurity through the decision making process. Whereas a number of Continental and Southern European trade unions, as well as the European Parliament, remained sceptical all the way through, important member states such as the UK, the Netherlands, France and - to some extent Germany - shifted position. The same was the case with BusinessEurope - and to some extent ETUC. At least two factors might explain this development: the erosion of the anti-job-security elements of the concepts and a spill-over effect that gradually eroded the powers as well as argument of the sceptics. The most important drivers in the domino-effect might have been the change of government in France and the last minute support from the European social partners.

Regarding the second question the answer is that coalitions seem to have played only a minor role, although the UK initially attempted to mobilise the minimalist-coalition. The two coalitions localised in the decision-making processes on European employment policy earlier in the decade - the ‘minimalist coalition' and the ‘regulation coalition' - was divided in the case of the flexicurity process

Paper til IREC-konference 22. -24. juli 2009, Istanbul. Tidligere version præsenteret på ASPEN/ETUI-konference 20.-21. marts 2007, DSE-konference 9. oktober 2008, samt CARMAs 25th Anniversary Conference 9.-10. oktober 2008.