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“Regression in social rights”, “precarisation of jobs”, “no recognition for exhausting work”: such are the slogans being seen on the streets of France to denounce the current pension reform. And but there’s nothing distinctive concerning the French state of affairs.
“Comparable reforms have already been launched in different European international locations. The protest motion appears distinctive to France, however this response is corresponding to related phenomena linked to the ‘price of dwelling disaster’ within the UK and Germany for instance, international locations that are much less liable to strikes”, notes Nicola Countouris, analysis director on the European Commerce Union Institute (ETUI), whose annual report has simply been printed (Benchmarking Working Europe 2023).
Financial governance takes precedence
“In reality, there’s nothing particularly nationwide about these structural reforms, since they’re requested by the European Fee throughout the framework of financial governance,” says Emmanuelle Mazuyer, director of analysis at France’s Centre for Scientific Analysis (CNRS) and a specialist in European social legislation. Europe’s integration venture stays essentially centred on markets, notably for the reason that introduction of the euro. “The precedence all the time goes to the economic system, to the discount of public deficits, it is the DNA of the European Union,” provides the researcher. “All different transitions – together with ecological, digital and financial – should be tailored to this framework,” says Nicola Countouris.
The talk is going down at a time when the international locations of the “EU are going by way of hardships following Covid-19. The proof is evident: wealth is distributed in an more and more inequitable method. Based on the ETUI report, “in the present day financial insecurity impacts not solely these in low-paid and short-term jobs, labelled ‘the precariat’ by Man Standing (2011), but additionally a wider skilled class together with lecturers, nurses, administration executives, carers and attorneys”. In March 2023, the French nationwide institute for statistics (INSEE) reported that rising company earnings in Europe had contributed to inflation in 2022.
Did Europe study nothing after the monetary disaster of 2008? “The EU is actually at a crossroads. It may well redouble the trouble and dedication it confirmed within the face of the Covid-19 disaster, this time by making certain that its actions aren’t geared simply to emergencies however reasonably in the direction of basic reforms. Or it will probably fall again on its pre-pandemic austerity mannequin and ignore the broader social challenge. We consider that this second strategy could be doomed to failure and that with no social transition, all different transitions are more likely to fail”, says Nicola Countouris.
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Moments of disaster, as an alternative of producing social advances, usually lead to backsliding. “Initially, we see international locations falling again onto their conventional nationwide fashions. Then, as social coverage is dear, precedence is given to decreasing public deficits and sovereign debt”, argues Emmanuelle Mazuyer. Thus, after deregulating job contracts and making labour relations extra versatile, nationwide governments are actually concentrating on social advantages: shrinking unemployment rights, elevating the retirement age and privatising techniques by way of the usage of pension funds. “Measures are solely taken when in addition they serve financial aims, such because the current enhance in wages to compensate for inflation and the price of dwelling,” notes Emmanuelle Mazuyer.
In an article printed in 2021, researcher Amandine Crespy checked out what European residents need: “development, unemployment and social inequalities stay on the prime …
