Europeanization and Labour Market Policy/ Case Studies: Greece and Finland

Abstract

Nowadays EU countries seem to be interested more than ever before in the coordination of their labour market policies. They are confronted with problems which are becoming increasingly common in an era of globalized economy and challenge social cohesion. The European countries' interest in a common labour market policy is not something new. However, it was not only until 1997 that the initial concern turned into a real policy through the European Employment Strategy (EES). A Europeanization process is on-going under the principles and the objectives of EES and the aim of this essay is to compare the Greek and the Finnish labour market policies; Given the distinctive institutional structures and peculiarities of the two countries, questions arise as to whether Finland, a representative case of the successful Nordic group of countries, can be considered a case of “best practice” from which lessons can be drawn for Greece, a representative Mediterranean country with difficulties and delays.