Towards 'Flexicurity'? Balancing Flexibility and Security in EU Member States

Abstract

This paper focuses on the "flexibility-security nexus" in employment and the labour market in four EU-member states: Denmark, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The starting point of the paper is the concept of "flexicurity", viewed as a particular way of dealing with the aforementioned nexus. The paper explores differences in the emphasis put on types and levels of flexibility and security, as well as the particular trade-offs between forms of flexibility and security. Coordinated decentralisation and flexible multi-level governance in national IR-systems seem to represent important preconditions for the introduction of flexicurity arrangements, as the Danish and Dutch cases show.

Keywords: flexicurity, European Employment Strategy, social partners, industrial relations, negotiation

JEL Classification: J00, J2, K31