This document analyzes the impact of European youth employment policies before and during the economic crisis in Greece and Ireland. It finds that pre-crisis, the "soft law" nature of the European Employment Strategy allowed countries to deviate in their policies based on their institutional settings. Ireland more closely followed the EU's flexicurity approach due to its existing liberal market institutions, while Greece's policies diverged more due to its state-centered institutions. However, during the crisis the EU imposed strict austerity measures on both countries, diminishing the influence of national institutions and converging policies toward a neo-liberal model focused on reducing social protections and labor costs.

1. Orestis Papadopoulos
The impact of the European youth
employment policies before and during
the crisis: A comparison in Greece and
Ireland
Keele University

2. Objectives
• Analyse the relationship between the European
Employment Strategy (EES) and the policies for
tackling youth unemployment in Greece and
Ireland.
• Sheds light on how the economic crisis has
affected youth employment policies in Greece
and Ireland.
• Is there any convergence towards a supply-side
policy paradigm?

3. Argument
• The ‘soft law’ nature of the EES allowed member
states to deviate their employment policies from
the EES.
• The contrasting institutional settings of Greece
and Ireland will produce different responses to
EU policy guidelines.
• The pre-crisis divergence is likely to be reduced
due to the extensive use of neo-liberal measures
and incremental institutional change at EU.

4. European Employment Strategy and
youth unemployment
• Introduction of flexible labour market
arrangements (promotion of part-time work and
entry-wage for young)
• Active labour market policies and welfare state
reforms with emphasis on activation and
conditionality of benefits
• Protecting people’s transitions within the labour
market rather than people’ jobs

5. Key Literature and theories
• The implementation of European policies will be
dependent on the fit-misfit of the members’
states institutional arrangements with the basic
assumptions of the EU policies (Börzel and Risse,
2003).
• Higher levels of EES implementation in countries
where the existing institutional framework
provides complementarities for applying a
flexicurity approach.

6. Institutional Theories: Greece
Greece has been conceptualized by the VoC
• As a state capitalist model (SCM) characterized by state-mediation
of the economic and social activities (Schmidt 2002).
• As a Southern European Capitalism, characterized by the regulatory
role of the state and increased institutional complementarities
directed towards welfare and education (Amable, 2003).
• As a Mixed Market economy (MME) (Molina and Rhodes, 2005)
characterized by organizational stability and institutional
complementarities but less coordinated and much more
fragmented than the CMEs.

7. Institutional Theories: Greece
• High level of Employment Protection Legislation (EPL), but
also high informality, fragmentation and duality of labour
market.
• Youth labor market has been dominated by very flexible
arrangements, violation of labor rights, and high
precariousness and insecurity for young workers (Kretsos,
2014, p: 38).
• Development of social dialogue and consensus discourse but
still limited social concertation and opportunities for social
pacts.

8. Institutional Theories: Greece
• Four main unemployment welfare regimes (sub-
protective, liberal/minimal, employment-centred, and
universalistic) differentiated based on: coverage, level of
compensation, and expenditure on ALMPs (Gallie and
Paugman (2000).
• The Greek system has been categorized as a sub-
protective type; due to absence of any social protection
for young unemployed and low expenditure on
vocational training and activation policies (Gallie and
Paugman, 2000; Papadopoulos, 2006).

9. Institutional Theories: Ireland
• Ireland has been categorized as a liberal market economy (LME) due to the
affiliation of the Irish socioeconomic structures with typical features of an LME
such as less strict Employment Protection Legislation both for regular and
temporary employment (Voss and Dornelas, 2011, p: 23).
• Ireland is characterized by a flexible youth labor market as lower wages for young
people under the age of 21 years and new entrants constitute a significant pillar of
the youth employment landscape.
• Neo-corporatist features such as coordinated tripartite industrial relations
arrangements.
• Supply-side corporatism’ supplemented by a peculiar institutional
complementarity between social partnership, economic openness and lean
welfare state supported by wage moderation and economic growth (Regan, 2011).

10. Institutional Theories: Ireland
• Ireland as a typical example of the Liberal type of welfare
state, characterized by minimum social benefits, modest
redistribution of incomes, and strict entitlement criteria of
social benefits.
• But, the expenditure on ALMP and vocational and training
polices and the impact of poverty alleviation social transfers
have been much higher in Ireland than in the UK (Amable,
2003, Gallie and Paugman, 2000).
• The youth unemployment regime can therefore be
characterized as “inclusive” as there is social protection
(means-tested) and ALMPs for young unemployed people,
while the labor market arrangements provide high levels of
flexibility (Cinalli & Giugni, 2013, p: 292-293).

11. Research Assumptions
• Greek institutional elements will function as
deterrents to the implementation of the flexicurity
approach
• The EES is expected to have greater impact on the
Irish youth employment policies due to their
proximity with basic ideational elements of the EES.

12. Methods
• Total number of 28 with national actors responsible for youth
employment policy
• Trade unions: GSEE, PAME, SIPTU, ICTU
• Employers organizations: IBEC, SEV, ISME, GSEVEE, ESEE
• Public agencies: Department of Education, FAS, NASC, Dublin
Employment Pact, OKE, OAED
• Research Institutes: ESRI, IOVE, EKKE
• Documentary research such as European Union and national
governments’ policy documents,

13. Findings for pre-crisis period: Greece
EU recommendations to Greece included:
• Active labor market policies (2001),
• Increase labor market flexibility through recourse to
part-time and nonstandard employment contracts and
tackling early school leaving (2004),
• Educational and vocational training reforms, and
introduction of social protection for young people
throughout the transition periods (2008).

14. Findings for pre-crisis period: Greece
Actions towards flexicurity
• Reduction of social security contributions for low paid workers
• The introduction of employment programs focused on either social
contributions subsidies or training-based options (‘One start-One
Opportunity’)
• The easing of access to part-time work and the restructuring of vocational
training (creation of the Manpower Employment Organization’s (OAED)
centres aimed at providing individualized assistance to young unemployed
people)
• Stimulating the reintegration of the young unemployed into the labour
market through the conversion of unemployment benefits into
employment subsidies

15. Findings for pre-crisis period: Greece
• No concrete action towards flexicurity, trade unions didn’t
participate in social dialogue relating to the flexicurity agenda.
• Limited reduction of EPL, informality and duality remained basic
features of the labour market
• Greece remained one of the countries without income support for
new entrants to the labor market or young unemployed without
sufficient social contributions
• The activation rate for young people under 25 in 2007 (32%) was
lower than that in 1999 (39.7%), while the expenditure on
activation as a share of Labour Market Policies (ALMP) was
significantly lower in 2005 (14.41%) when compared with 1995
(49.44%).

16. Findings for pre-crisis period: Greece
• The pre-crisis dualistic labor market regime in
combination with the traditionally low social
protection regime (sub-protective) provided little
space for flexicurity policies.
• The available data also show that Greece
remained one of the countries without income
support for new entrants to the labor market or
young unemployed (Matsaganis, 2011, p: 508-
509).

17. Findings for pre-crisis period Ireland
EU recommendations to Ireland
• Tackling early school-leaving and stronger ALMPs
(2004)
• Investments in education and training (2001)
• An emphasis on life-long learning and in-
company training (2008).

18. Findings for pre-crisis period Ireland
• Some basic features of the EES and flexicurity had been
incorporated into the Irish youth employment policies
much earlier than 1997.
• The implementation of preventative active labour market
policies in Ireland started before the European Employment
Strategy.
• Available data show that Ireland scored very high in active
labour market expenditure as in 1995 the total expenditure
amounted to 1.7 per cent much higher than both the OECD
(0.8) and European Union (1.1) average (Clarke, 2000).

19. Findings for pre-crisis period Ireland
• The Local Training Initiative (formal training and work experience)
was introduced for addressing mostly the local needs of young
people between 16 and 25 years of age (Grubb et al., 2009, p: 12).
• Community Training Centers (CTCs) have been designed for
providing training in subjects such as Maths, English and computing
to early school leavers aged from 16-21 (NFQ) (European
Employment Observatory, 2011, p: 21).
• The provision of vocational training in a variety of occupational
areas such as construction, clothing, management, and engineering
was facilitated by the Specific Skills Training (work experience)
(Grubb et al., 2009, p: 112).

20. Findings for pre-crisis period Ireland
• Introduction of the lifecycle approach: access to
employment, skills, conditional income support and
secure transitions are combined (Towards 2016, 2006).
• Increase in social expenditure and income
maintenance for young people.
• High expenditure on ALMPs as a share of LMP (41.40 in
2005), the high ALMPs expenditure per unemployed
(27.37 in 2005) and the high expenditure on ALMPs
(0.9 in 2009).

21. Post-crisis EU institutional changes
• Labour market reforms are imposed on member states
as a condition for receiving financial support (Bekker,
2013, p: 9).
• Emphasis placed by the EU (The Euro Plus Pact, 2011)
on sound budgets and supply-side measures.
• The implementation of austerity measures has
seriously endangered the fiscal capacity of states to
implement social protection and training schemes.

22. Findings for post-crisis: Greece
• Supply-side focus of policies and attack on young people’
employment rights
• Reduction by 32 per cent for all young people under 25, promotion
of flexible employment contracts with the reduction of part-time
pay
• Increase in the number of collective dismissals within one month
(Article 74(1) Act 3863/2010), promotion of flexible employment
contracts with the reduction of part-time pay (Act 3846/2010),
extension of short-term and fixed-term work (Act 3846/2010 and
Act 3986/2011), and derogation of the company level agreements
from sectoral and collective (3845/2010).

23. Findings for post-crisis: Greece
• The Greek government introduced some early interventions such as the “Special
New Jobs Programme,” which aimed to subsidize the social contributions of 40000
unemployed people during their first 4 years of employment (EEO, 2010a).
• In 2012, the Greek government also introduced short-term schemes on
community employment (55 000 people) and new traineeship schemes.
• In 2013 Greece introduced an EU-funded youth Guarantee scheme (of a total
value of 260 million Euros) following the recommendations of the European
Commission.
• As a director from the Manpower Employment Organization (OAED) commented,
“the EU emphasis on training, activation and employment growth has been
undermined especially since the crisis as most measures are supply-side, short-
term and under-funded’’.

24. Findings for post-crisis Ireland
• The Irish government, under the severe
pressures imposed by the Troika, introduced
significant cuts to the Jobseekers Allowance
benefits for new entrants aged under 25 years
• The consensus on flexicurity has been broken
down, employers are explicitly focusing on
social protection reductions.

25. Findings for post-crisis Ireland
• The government launched a Social Insurance Exemption
Scheme of total cost of 36 million for helping businesses to
employ redundant workers being unemployed for more
than six months
• The work placement scheme was also introduced with the
objective to provide incentives to firms in order to recruit
young unemployed people for a period of nine months
• The Irish government invested 25 million Euros in the Youth
reach program, where vocational training and work
experience was to be provided to 3700 young people by
the end of 2013

26. Findings for post-crisis Ireland
• These measures were of limited scale considering the high number
of young unemployed people and they signified a shift away from
the pre-crisis ALMPs targeting the labor market integration of
young people
• ‘The main weakness is the scale. Under the Memorandum
agreements the State is not free to invest money while sanctions
towards unemployed people have considerably increased’. (Services
Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU),
• While in the pre-crisis period, social protection for young people
was strengthened through increases in welfare benefits, during the
crisis, the dominant political discourse has focused on the need to
reduce welfare dependency and cut social services

27. Conclusions
• The institutional elements of the two ‘models’
determined the implementation of the EU
employment policies in the pre-crisis period
• Different degree of convergence-divergence between
the pre- and post-crisis periods supports the
assumption that the impact of the institutional
settings was diminished since the crisis

28. Conclusions
• Since the financial crisis the neo-liberal policy
ideas have prevailed in the two countries, with a
significant decline of social protection and
training policies.
• Internationally imposed measures and hard-law
enforcement mechanisms adopted by the EU
placed higher implementation pressures than the
soft-law and non-binding character of the EES.

29. Conclusions
• The characteristics of the Greek youth regime
rendered the flexicurity discourse highly
inapplicable

30. Conclusions
• Specifically, in Ireland, the activation and means-
tested “logic” of the minimal-liberal yet inclusive
youth employment regime, together with
flexibility in the labor market, have facilitated an
easier understanding of, and agreement over,
flexicurity and EES policy ideas. The high
expenditure on ALMPs, the increase in social
expenditure, and the consolidation of training
and up-skilling programs signified the emergence
of a pre-crisis convergence between the EES
recommendations and Irish youth employment
policies

31. Conclusions
• The research findings support the argument that the post-crisis
youth employment policies imposed by the Troika overlook the
national institutional features of youth unemployment and impose
a very strict austerity and neo-liberal framework within which any
pre-crisis national institutional configuration or fit-misfit hypothesis
are diluted (Clauwart and Schomann, 2012). Hence, contrary to the
assumptions made by previous research (Lallement, 2011;
Hardiman and MacCarthaigh, 2013; Kornelakis, 2013) that
institutional settings will yield different responses to liberalization
pressures, the article provides supporting evidence that both
Greece and Ireland have adopted similar neo-liberal youth
employment policies under the significant pressures imposed on
them by the EU and the Memorandum Agreements.