Does Europe need a coordination of national larbour-market policies?

In the current economic-policy discussion, the need for a stronger coordination of labour-market policies is often mentioned. In the opinion of Hartmut Egger and Daniel Etzel, University of Bayreuth, a stronger coordination of labour-market-policy measures and a critical debate on common labour-market-policy goals within the European Union would be a desirable goal. However, regulations in this area must respect the existing wage-bargaining autonomy arrangements. Whether such a coordination can also increase overall economic welfare, however, has not yet been examined in economic studies. Hagen Lesch, Cologne Institute of the German Economy, maintains that a correction of unit wage costs of the deficit countries relative to those of the surplus countries would be helpful in correcting the discrepancies in the balances on current account. A coordination of national labour-market policies could speed up this process. At the moment, however, there is neither an incentive for coordination nor a generally accepted coordination procedure. Holger Zemanek, University of Leipzig, rejects a direct or supranational coordination of wage policies. He would welcome, however, a European consensus that wage increases should not exceed productivity growth. The restrictive fiscal policies throughout Europe as well as the wage stability in Germany already serve as a free-market, indirect coordination of labour-market policies in Europe. Also Christoph Moser, ETH Zurich, does not see the necessity for a coordination of national labour-market policy in Europe for the removal in imbalances within Europe.