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Communiqué October 2005

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Research in brief

Income inequalities and deprivation

The recent enlargement of the European Union sees a widening of the gap in living standards between the richest and poorest Member States. However, what is defined as the poverty threshold in the richest Member States often counts as an above-average income in the poorest Member States. The ‘poor’ in some former EU15 countries have higher living standards than the well-off in the new Member States. A new Foundation report on income inequalities and deprivation puts forward a new approach to measuring poverty based on incorporating EU-wide thresholds alongside existing measures.

Download the full report

Household poverty

Source: European Foundation 2005

News in brief

Better flexible time arrangements over the life course needed

Adapting social security provisions to flexible and discontinuous life courses is a key policy challenge, according to the Foundation in its new report Working time options over the life course: Institutional arrangements and their effect on social security provisions. Deficits in social protection occur, for example, in the case of unemployment, particularly in long-term unemployment and unemployment early on in the life course. Here, access to active labour market policy plays a decisive role. Part-time workers profit from redistributive elements in many social security schemes, but at the same time carry an increased poverty risk, in particular, in countries where the social security system is orientated towards the principle of equivalence. Working-time accounts can help to better organise time over the life course, but contain certain disadvantages, e.g. being unprotected against the insolvency of the employer.

Learn more about this topic

The future of Europe’s construction sector

An increasingly crowded marketplace following EU enlargement, more recruitment challenges due to an ageing population, and higher demands on health and safety across the sector, are the main factors which will put Europe’s construction industry under pressure in the short to medium-term perspective. These are the forecasts in a new report from the Foundation’s European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC). The construction sector, which accounts for 4%–9% of GDP and 4%–10% of employment in the European Union, is characterised by a strong domestic market structure, a large number of micro and small companies, and low levels of investment in research and development. The report argues that for the sector to stay competitive and grow, all actors – companies, social partners, policymakers and sectoral experts – need to acknowledge the changing framework conditions and act in unison.

More information is available on the EMCC website

More changes predicted in Europe’s airline sector

The liberalisation of Europe’s airline sector and the consequent emergence of many low-cost airlines – coinciding with the economic downturn of the early 90s, the hike in fuel prices and the terrorist attack of 9/11 – have resulted in enormous change in the sector over the past two decades. Restructuring and change in the sector is likely to continue in the medium term, until the liberalisation and privatisation of national carriers has been fully completed in all countries. The new EIRO comparative study examines industrial relations in the airline sector in 17 EU Member States. It provides an overview of the sector, describing the role of the main trade union and employer organisations, the collective bargaining structures, particular issues surrounding restructuring, and the impact of low-cost airlines on the sector as a whole.

Read more on the EIRO website

Increase in number of web users

There has been a significant increase in the use of the Foundation websites for the first eight months of the year, compared to the same period last year. The EuroFound website, the Foundation’s corporate channel of communication on the Internet, has seen an increase in the number of user sessions from 957,000 between January and August in 2004 to 1,265,000 during the same period in 2005, representing a 32% increase. The EIRO website has seen an increase from 1,416,000 to 1,580,000 over the same period, demonstrating a 12% increase. The website of the European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC) has recorded 222,000 users during the period, up from 65,000 last year. In 2006, efforts will be focused on bringing all the Foundation’s websites under one umbrella.