Nordic social risk management and the challenge of EU regulation: labour market parity at risk

There has been a long-standing consensus among the employer and employee representatives to decide upon management of social risks in the coordination of labour market institutions in the Nordic countries. This consensus has been built upon the idea of parity in collective bargaining, or labour market parity, which refers to the reciprocal recognition of interests between labour market representatives and to parity-based negotiations and agreements in which a consensus can be reached. In this chapter, we argue that the recent developments within what we call ‘the European social space’ prescribe many challenges for the future of collective bargaining in Nordic countries.We discuss the implications that stem from the creation of competitive markets at the European level to the future of the European industrial relations in general and to the Nordic industrial relations in particular. We conclude the chapter with a reflection on the challenges that competition and market-based principles pose for the Nordic model of social risk-sharing and to the potential attempts to apply the ‘labour market parity’ principle beyond the national levels of action.