EU-Level Policymaking

Chiara Benassi, member of the EUFutures Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Steering Committee, and her students from the Political Economy of Labour Markets course at the University of Bologna, begin a new teaching module dedicated to EU-level policymaking in the labour market and industrial relations arena, with a particular focus on developments from the post-Global Financial Crisis period to the present.

The first part of the module explores how the European Commission has influenced national-level reforms in areas such as collective bargaining, the public employment sector, and labour market institutions, including minimum wages and employment protection legislation, as well as their implications for workers and European economies.

The module then focuses on two recent policy initiatives that will structure students’ applied work: the Quality Jobs Roadmap, which will be analysed through group work, and Unions of Skills, which will be explored in a dedicated Policy Lab.

The teaching module is developed within the framework of the EUFutures Work Package 2 (WP2) – Unpacking the Foundations of EU Growth. WP2 aims to analyse the historical foundations of the EU growth model, examining how economic strategies have evolved over time and identifying the key institutional, political, and economic forces that have shaped them.