Anne Mettler

Anne METTLER is a Founder of the Lisbon Council whom we met at the EU Social Innovation Awards 2014. Anne is now the Head of the European Commission's new European Political Strategy Centre. Anne’s latest strategy note for Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is on the social dimension of having the euro as the continent’s currency: http://bit.ly/1eAjx67. The note takes a firm Juncker-esque line, saying the social aspects of the euro have “too often been neglected, due to the implicit assumption that making EMU more ‘social’ would somehow hamper the economic performance of the euro area. Nothing could be further from the truth ... Upward convergence must be seen as the unifying common goal and leitmotif of Economic and Monetary Union. European citizens should no longer equate it with declining living standards and lower disposable incomes, especially since many of these phenomena are driven largely by Member State decisions"

EUROPE HAS A TWO-CLASS LABOR MARKET: Matching the multi-speed theme of the week, Mettler’s note acknowledges that long-term unemployment has doubled since 2008 and “Member States have tended to focus primarily on flexibility at the margins of the labour market, which in turn has led to a gaping duality in labour markets .. pits mostly older insiders with permanent contracts that enjoy maximum protection against a growing number of younger outsiders confronted with short-term contracts.”

It is about time the EU started to tackle zero hour contracts. Soon it is feared. in George Osbourne's July Budget, Jobseekers may be for forced to work for less than the minimimum wage.