A policy perspective on European unemployment

This paper focuses on three major themes in the policy debate on European u nemployment. A first issue concerns the causes of unemployment. We point to the diversity of the unemployment performance in Europe and plead for a po licy approach which takes into account the interdependence between employme nt, labour costs and social protection. As a second major theme, we evaluat e existing EU policies. While a EU social dimension is gradually developing , the European level is far from providing a comprehensive policy framework at this stage. A third issue relates to the national policy dimension and is linked to Europe's quest for a third way. We compare the corporatist and competitive labour market approach.