Communiqué, issue 3, 2004
Articles
- Foundation findings place family policies back on the agenda
- Social policy a priority for Dutch EU Presidency
- Monitoring industrial change in Europe: future prospects
- Quality of life in Europe: theme of the next information campaign
- Increasing number of lay-offs in the first quarter of 2004
- Trends and drivers of change in the European railway sector
- Benchmarking the quality of industrial relations in the public sector
- Changing attitudes toward financial participation
- The Foundation’s ‘open-door’ policy
Previous issues of Communiqué
European social partners, governments and the European Commission expressed their overall satisfaction with the progress of the European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC) at the EMCC Exchange 2004 conference in Brussels on 29 April last. The event brought together the EMCC’s stakeholders with the aim of reviewing the centre’s achievements over the past two and a half years and plotting its course for the future.
More anticipation and monitoring of good practice
The EMCC’s main mission is to help social partners, SMEs and businesses, and governments identify and anticipate trends of industrial change. Over the past couple of years, the EMCC has scored points with its stakeholders by identifying and analysing the effects of drivers of change like information technology and financial markets on businesses and sectors. With its Company Network in place and extensive contacts with experts and researchers, the EMCC is well positioned to identify what works in managing change and to disseminate this message to companies throughout Europe.
European social partners get involved
As an acknowledgement of its efficiency and effectiveness, the European social partners are keen to help marketing the EMCC to users at national level. ‘We are poised to bring our knowledge to a wider audience, and naturally welcome any help in marketing our products and tools,’ says Barbara Gerstenberger, research coordinator of the EMCC team. ‘Since 2002, our efforts have borne fruit: about 300 people have participated in EMCC exchange events across Europe, the EMCC portal has recorded almost 100,000 user sessions and over 50 seminar reports, case examples and sector analysis have been published.’
Sticking to the sectoral approach
The EMCC’s efforts to identify and examine the impact of drivers of industrial change at the sectoral level have proven beneficial to its users and stakeholders. There is, however, a clear demand on the part of the social partners for EMCC to expand its coverage to include more sectors and begin analysing trends at sub-sectoral level. At present, the EMCC collects information and provides analysis on drivers of change in 26 sectors.