Abstract
The economic crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic leads to a substantial potential loss of personal incomes and jobs. European countries have given different answers to the rising challenge, which nevertheless point to the same direction. We give three examples of such courses of action, describing Austria, Spain, and the UK. In an early phase of the crisis, the European Commission put forward a new instrument financially supporting short-time work (STW), labelled SURE (temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency). We discuss the main features and criticalities of SURE. While SURE is a step in the right direction, there is still room to grow: SURE is a safety net to jobs, but not to the unemployed. We examine and compare some of the unemployment insurance and re-insurance alternatives that could shape a future European unemployment benefit scheme.
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Notes
- 1.
Between the last quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, GDP fell by 5.3% in France and Italy, 5.2% in Spain, 3.8% in the Euro area, 2.2% in Germany, 2.1% in Canada and 1.4% in Korea, 1.3% in the United States and 0.6% in Japan. See OECD (2020).
- 2.
Projections published in the 2020 July OECD Employment Outlook.
- 3.
ERTE: expediente de regulación temporal de empleo.
- 4.
On the example of Austria, Schnetzer et al. (2020) stress the importance of social partners in negotiation, and the resulting effectiveness of short-time work arrangements in the COVID-19 crisis.
- 5.
See D’Alfonso (2020).
- 6.
The EISF was supposed to maintain the continuity of investment projects in times of crises. However, this was not supposed to happen through transfers but loans, in a way to compensate for interest rates potentially hiking in a turbulent period.
- 7.
The RSP was designed so support structural reforms within the member states in line with recommendations outlined in the context of the European Semester. Apart from offering a Reform Delivery Tool and technical assistance, it also wanted to introduce a Convergence Facility to provide dedicated support to Member States seeking to adopt the euro.
- 8.
Interestingly, Alcidi and Corti (2020) consider SURE unconditional, simply because a Memorandum of Understanding is not supposed to be involved. On the other hand, since a specific action has to be taken to access the EU funding, SURE can be classified as a conditional stabiliser tool.
- 9.
The relevant quote from the MacDougall Report: “Apart from the political attractions of bringing the individual citizen into direct contact with the Community, it would have significant redistributive effects and help to cushion temporary setbacks in particular member countries, thereby going a small part of the way towards creating a situation in which monetary union could be sustained”.
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Acknowledgements
Research for this chapter has been supported by the European Union and Hungary and co-financed by the European Social Fund through the project EFOP-3.6.2-16-2017-00017, titled “Sustainable, intelligent and inclusive regional and city models”.
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Andor, L. (2021). Protecting Jobs and Incomes in Europe: Towards an EU Capacity for Employment Stabilisation in the Pandemic Period. In: Caetano, J., Vieira, I., Caleiro, A. (eds) New Challenges for the Eurozone Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62372-2_11
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