Challenges and prospects in the EU

What have been the major trends and policy developments regarding digitalisation in Europe? What do we know about the deployment of automation, digitisation and the platform economy? This flagship publication provides an overview of developments in Europe in recent years, as well as mapping the observable or expected effects on employment and working conditions, as well as exploring the implications from a policy perspective.

Following improvements in economic growth and labour market participation after the global financial and economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a new, unprecedented challenge for the EU. The crisis threatens to pose an existential challenge to the EU’s cohesion and legitimacy. The subject of upward convergence is once again centre stage in the European policy debate. Expanding on work done on this topic in previous years, this flagship report traces developments in economic and social indicators between the economic crisis and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

V tem glavnem poročilu so povzeti ključni izsledki raziskave Eurofounda o delovnih razmerah, ki je potekala v programskem obdobju 2017–2020. Opisan je napredek pri izboljšanju delovnih razmer po letu 2000, proučeno pa je bilo tudi, ali so imeli vsi delavci enake koristi od pozitivnih sprememb. Izpostavljeno je, pri katerih skupinah je tveganje za slabe delovne razmere in zapostavljenost največje. Glede na spremembe v svetu dela so opredeljeni novi izzivi za visoko kakovost delovnih mest.

Eurofound v okviru svoje naloge spodbujanja dialoga med socialnimi partnerji že več kot 40 let spremlja in analizira razvoj sistemov odnosov med delodajalci in delojemalci na ravni EU in v državah članicah EU. To glavno poročilo temelji na delu, ki ga je v zvezi s tem opravil v zadnjem programskem obdobju (2015–2019). Izhaja iz obsežnega spremljanja sistemov odnosov med delodajalci in delojemalci ter socialnega dialoga, ki je stalna dejavnost Eurofounda.

What have been the major trends and policy developments regarding the flexibilisation of employment in recent years? Eurofound’s work programme for 2017–2020 set out to document and capture these changes in the world of work. This flagship publication provides an overview of developments in Europe in the wake of the global financial crisis, as well as mapping the ongoing challenges and policy approaches taken at EU and national levels to find the right balance between flexibility and security in the labour market.

What have been the major developments in quality of life and public services in Europe in recent years, as captured by research into these areas in Eurofound’s work programme for 2017–2020? This flagship publication provides a synthesis of the main findings on several key topics, based, in part, on European Quality of Life Survey data.