"The European employment strategy: Composite factors leading to its evolution"

This paper seeks to identify the factors that influenced the Member States in their interest of developing of these measures. First it describes the economic developments in Europe in regard to employment and unemployment. Second, it describes the employment chapter of the Amsterdam Treaty. Third, it tests two sets of explanations given for the origins of these measures: one explanation concerns the view that Europe-wide employment measures have to be seen as the collective response to a common economic problem. The other explanation, in turn, deals with the following three claims: Europe-wide employment policy is pursued by Member States as a response to the “end of permissive consensus,” as a response to an increase in demand for a joint fight against unemployment, and as a response to an increase in opposition to common currency. An empirical analysis of Eurostat and Eurobarometer data sets is conducted to assess the validity of these hypotheses. However, the results of the empirical analysis are counter-indicative to the hypothesized relationship. Therefore, the fourth section of the paper develops an alternative explanation that seeks to explore the particular kind of composition factors that have influenced the Member States in their level of support for Europe-wide employment measures. The empirical findings of this paper point to a refined hypothesis. The specific combination of the following two circumstances-level of utilitarian support and level of opposition to a common currency-influenced the degree of interest a Member State had for Europe-wide employment measures during the Intergovernmental Conference 1996/1997