European Framework Agreements at Company Level and the EU 2020 Strategy

Abstract

The European Union (EU) 2020 strategy is one of the current EU mainstream policies. Its aim is to boost Europe’s competitiveness by focusing both on economic and employment policies. Particularly, the increase of the employment rate of the population aged 20–64 to 75% is one of the 5 EU headline targets. Several actors (e.g. social partners, civil society) are asked to give their contributions to the achievement of the EU 2020 strategy’s goals. This chapter will look into European framework agreements at company level (EFAs) as potential contributors to the attainment of the employment-related objectives laid down by the EU 2020 strategy. As an emerging form of social self-regulation at European level, these agreements are the outcome of the negotiation process between multinational enterprises and workers’ representatives (e.g. European trade union confederation, European industry federations, and European works councils). In particular, this chapter will examine the topics covered by the EFAs that have been concluded between the launch of the EU 2020 strategy (March 2010) and April 2015. In doing so, it will analyse whether the topics touched upon by the signatory parties of these agreements align with the EU 2020 strategy’s employment-related objectives.