Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa

producers’
Finally, the government budget balance shows that almost all CEECs succeeded in decreasing
their government deficit after 2009, which is a tendency shared with the EU-15 countries (see
Table 2.3). In terms of the general government gross debt, all CEECs remained below the EU-
15 debt average in 2001. Although debt has been growing in several countries, Hungary is the
only country whose gross debt as % of GDP approximates the EU-15 average in 2011 (ibid.)
Table 2.3 General government deficit/surplus and general government gross debt as %
of GDP in the CEECs, 2007-2011
General government
deficit/surplus
General government
gross debt
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
BG 1.2 1.7 -4.3 -3.1 -2.0 BG 17.2 13.7 14.6 16.2 16.3
CZ -0.7 -2.2 -5.8 -4.8 -3.2 CZ 27.9 28.7 34.2 37.8 40.8
EE 2.4 -2.9 -2.0 0.2 1.2 EE 3.7 4.5 7.2 6.7 6.1
LV -0.4 -4.2 -9.7 -8.1 -3.4 LV 9.0 19.8 36.7 44.5 42.2
LT -1.0 -3.3 -9.4 -7.2 -5.5 LT 16.8 15.5 29.3 37.9 38.5
HU -5.1 -3.7 -4.5 -4.5 4.3 HU 67.0 73.0 79.8 81.8 81.4
PL -1.9 -3.7 -7.4 -7.9 -5.0 PL 45.0 47.1 50.9 54.8 56.4
RO -2.9 -5.7 -9.0 -6.8 -5.5 RO 12.8 13.4 23.6 30.5 33.4
SI 0.0 -1.9 -6.0 -5.7 -6.4 SI 23.1 22.0 35.0 38.6 46.9
SK -1.8 -2.1 -8.0 -7.7 -4.9 SK 29.6 27.9 35.6 41.0 43.3
CEECs -1.8 -3.3 -6.9 -6.4 -3.7 CEECs 35.3 36.7 43.0 47.4 49.3
EU-15 -0.9 -2.4 -6.9 -6.5 -4.5 EU-15 61.3 66.3 76.9 82.9 85.6
Source: Eurostat.
Building on this brief presentation of selected economic and labour market indicators, the
remainder of this chapter focuses on industrial relations developments across the CEECs and
their comparison with the EU-15.
2.2 Comparing industrial relations in the CEECs and the EU-15
The incremental and long-term character of evolution of particular industrial relations features
in the EU-15 and the CEECs allow an examination of variation in industrial relations and
prospects for convergence between these two clusters. Historically, industrial relations
arrangements and their achievements in contributing to growth and social protection in the
post-war period in most Western European democratic and capitalist states have rested on at
least one of four institutional pillars: strong or reasonably established social partners (in
particular, trade unions); solidarity wage setting based on collective bargaining at the sectoral
or higher level of coordination; fairly generalised arrangements of information, consultation
and in some cases co-determination at the company level based on the rights of workers and
unions to be involved in decision-making; and institutionalised or routinised practice of
tripartite policy making and involvement of social partners in tripartite policy arrangements
(EC 2008; Streeck, 1992; Traxler, 2002; Visser, 2006a). These pillars will be used to compare
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