evaluation culture’ (Goetschy, 2001). The idea of an EU employment strategy
dates back to the Delors White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment
(1993) and it was developed, along with provision for a form of monitoring, by
the European Council in Essen in December 1994. Member states were asked to
establish employment programmes and to report annually to the Commission
on their implementation. Article Four of the new Title on Employment of the
1997 Amsterdam Treaty not only institutionalized this procedure, but also intro-
duced two major innovations that provided for more active intervention from
above. First, acting by a qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission,
and after appropriate consultations, the Council draws up annual guidelineson
employment consistent with the broad economic policy guidelines. Second, act-
ing by a qualified majority on a recommendation from the Commission, it may
also make recommendationsto member states in the light of its yearly examina-
tion of their employment policies.
The Extraordinary Summit in Lisbon in 2000 was especially significant.
Substantively, 60 specific targets were set for member states to reach within ten
years concerning such criteria as the proportion of the population in employ-
ment (70% on average and 60% for women) and average annual growth (3%).
Procedurally, Lisbon saw the confirmation of the ‘open co-ordination method’
whereby national employment policies were put to the test of international
comparison, including ‘peer review’ (i.e. scrutiny by a wide range of EU insti-
tutions), and outcomes measured against time-specific targets and recommen-
dations. The subsequent Nice summit required the establishment of a Social
Protection Committee to promote co-operation between the Commission and
member states on social protection policies.
The sector dimension – the basics for
co-ordinated bargaining?Although the sector is the key level of collective bargaining in most EU coun-
tries, developments at the European sector level are more embryonic than at
the EU inter-professional level. Even where the sector social dialogue is most
developed, in those sectors where the EU has an integrated industrial policy
and where encompassing employer, as well as trade union, organization at the
European level exists, it deals largely with frameworks and statements of prin-
ciple. In total, the European Commission (2000b: 17) estimates that there have
been more than 150 ‘joint texts’, with a doubling over the last ten years in
what the Commission describes as ‘dialogue productivity’ from 0.7 to 1.4 texts
per sector per annum. Unlike the cross-sector level, where most texts deal with
employment or employment-related matters, only around 50% of sector joint
texts have been so concerned, the other half concentrating on the business or
commercial position of the sector in response to proposals or initiatives of the
Commission. Elsewhere, such as in metalworking, where the absence of
442 International Human Resource Management