Public Employment Services and European Law

* Provides detailed comparative analysis of public employment services law and policy in the UK, Denmark, Italy, and Germany * Examines how conceptions and functions of public services have changed in recent years * Examines the struggle of the EU's community of welfare states to adapt to economic globalization * Explores the interaction and conflict between the economic and social aims of the EU How can the EU's community of welfare states adapt their public policies to economic globalization? What happens when the economic and social aims of the EU come into conflict? This book examines the developing legal regimes and regulation of public services in the UK and other European countries. Public services are examined though a case-study of the complex area of public employment services. These are job-placement and vocational training services which aim to maximize employment and minimize unemployment within EU member States' Active Labour Market policies. Employment services are at the centre of a complex web of rules in both hard and soft forms of law deriving from the EU, national public law and from private, and at times contractual, agreements. They also lie at the crossroads of a series of trends in regulation, and priorities have been inspired by an array of conflicting policy rationales. These policy rationales include the establishment of an open and competitive European internal market, the establishment of an efficient welfare state, the scaling down of state administrative machinery, the fulfilment of core public service responsibilities, and the creation of public-private partnerships. Public employment services provide a highly informative and novel case study of the interaction and conflict between the economic and social aims of the EU and between regulation at national and supranational levels, and the changing forms which this regulation has taken.

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Readership:

Scholars and practitioners of European law, employment law, and public law, and scholars of European public policy and public administration.

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Reviews:

"This is an engaging study that makes compelling claims about the difficulties faced by public services, drawing upon a well-researched case study on PES. A detailed analysis of PES in each of the Member States is rightly avoided as too ambitious a project. The focus on trends enables the authors to extrapolate conclusions for reflecting on public services... The current political relevance of PES makes the study a revealing read for anyone with an interest in the regulatory vicissitudes facing public services in general; it is an essential read for those working in the area of PES and the European Employment Strategy in particular." - Charlotte O'Brien, Common Market Law Review 46, 2009

Part I: Regulating Public Services in Europe 1: Competence, Social Policy, and Public Services 2: Conceptions of Public Service in European Law 3: Modes of Governance and Regulatory Techniques 4: Employment Services as a Public Service Part II: Employment Services: Activities, Functions, and Policies 5: Changing Institutional and Regulatory Frameworks for Job Intermediation 6: Active Labour Market Policies: Between 'Right to Work' and 'Workfare' 7: Vocational Education and Training of the Unemployed and Public Employment Services 8: Making Work Pay and 'Employment Friendly Wages' 9: The Relationship between Public Employment Services and the Unemployed 10: Conclusion