(13 March 2017) – The 2017 edition of ‘Benchmarking working Europe’, published by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), focuses on the question ‘overcoming cleavages across the EU?
Seen in absolute terms, there seems little reason to be optimistic about the economic and social situation in the European Union. The last seven years of austerity and deregulatory structural reforms have resulted in a lack of GDP growth, a rise in unemployment, damaging low rates of investment (both private and public), stagnating wage growth and cuts in social policy programmes.
The report analyses in four chapters and with the help of 58 visual graphs latest trends and outcomes of European policies in the areas of macro-economics, wages and collective bargaining, labour markets and, last but not least, social dialogue and workers’ participation.
The Benchmarking working Europe 2017 demonstrates that the European Union is experiencing increasing social divergences and underlines the need for new policies that can generate higher living standards for all, based on fair integration and upwards convergence.