The Assessment: Economic Integration and the Role of the European Community

Financing the European Community: A Review of Options for the Future

“…Decentralisation in government will, in many cases, be desirable, because it will help to ensure that the decisions taken by government adequately reflect local preferences and interests. Amongst other reasons, preferences regarding public policy measures are likely to vary widely within the Community due to differences in income levels; cultural and institutional differences may also be reasons for differences in policy preferences (Helm and Smith, 1989).…”

“…On the one hand, centralisation allows more specialisation, and hence gains from the division of labour, whilst on the other hand, the problems of communication and control increase more than proportionately with the size of the organisational unit (Arrow, 1974). Generally speaking, the larger the information content of policy implementationfor example, about local needs and circumstancesthe greater will be the case for decentralisation, often to levels below those of national governments (Helm and Smith, 1987). However, in the cases where there are substantial unexploited economies of scale in implementation at the level of national governments, this could constitute a reason for assignment to the EC level, which would outweigh the disadvantages of insensitivity to local or national preferences and objectives.…”

Human Resource Management, Labour Market Institutions And European Integration

“…The advocates of the neo-liberal view often overlook the fact that the introduction of flexibility and deregulatory initiatives in Britain was considerably eased by the relative absence of employment legislation and the lack of central institutions, structures or norms governing industrial relations. In other member states the reverse is the case, with the industrial relations system being composed of a dense array of national institutions and legal arrangements (Helm and Smith, 1989). To be effective a Community labour market flexibility policy would require root-and-branch changes to such industrial relations systems, since it is a basic premise of this approach that the employment relationship should not be conditioned or constrained by non-market external influences.…”