By Silke Maes, Associate Research Fellow at EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy
This blog is produced as a part of the Reshaping Work Fellowship Programme. The opinions and views expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Reshaping Work or organisations that have supported the programme.
*This blog is based on a one year research project “The Platform Revolution”. The results draw on 34 semi-structured interviews with national government officials, researchers, trade union and private sector representatives across eight countries (Albania, Czechia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia) as well as 3 expert roundtables held in 2025.
The EU and Western Balkans: a tale of two regions
The EU Platform Work Directive – the EU’s landmark piece of legislation aimed at improving the working conditions of platform workers – is heavily influenced by the debate on precarious on-location work resembling an employment relationship. Services such as delivery and taxi services have been the most visible face of the platform economy in the EU, and protecting these dependent workers – from misclassification and algorithmic management – has been at the heart of EU policy discussions.
While approximately 95% of platform workers in the EU perform on-location work serving the local market, the Western Balkans have developed a platform economy strongly relying on online platform work – creative, multimedia, and software development – geared towards international clients in the US and EU. The drivers are different too. In the EU, workers are driven to platform work for flexible additional income and temporary employment, not as a viable career path. Meanwhile, in the Western Balkans, high unemployment (particularly among young people), local skill mismatches, and barriers to formal employment push workers toward platforms. At the same time, access to higher incomes through global platforms actively pulls them there.
The case for a protection-first approach in the Western Balkans
A single regulatory approach cannot work across both regions because the sectors, institutional capacities, and the economic relevance of platform work differ. This calls for context-specific regulation. In the Western Balkans, there is momentum for labour market reforms and tackling informal work, a need that is broadly acknowledged and already underway, for example, with Serbia’s public administration reform, expected to better cover certain forms of non-standard work. These reforms are an opportunity to make platform work part of a broader modernisation agenda, and to clarify the status and the benefits of platform workers.
But it must be approached carefully. If the western Balkans opt for strict binary classification of workers (which only recognises employees and employers), it requires strong enforcement and legal interpretation capacities. These are resources the Western Balkans currently lack. In addition, platform work is also economically important. Platform workers in the ICT and creative industries have become a niche but increasingly valuable and educated section of the labour market. Consequently, if regulation is not adapted to the context, it risks stifling a sector with innovation potential.
Perhaps most importantly, platform work in the Western Balkans is also strongly linked with informal work. Two-thirds of online workers in Serbia are estimated to be in hidden employment. Likewise, in Montenegro, many online platform workers work under service contracts or without any contract at all, leading to uncertainty regarding the payment for their services and concerns about insurance coverage. In North Macedonia freelancers seeking legal status and social protection find that the best available option – registering as a sole proprietor – imposes great bureaucratic burdens and financial risk, as workers are liable with all their assets. This means that, to succeed, reforms should protect workers without placing an excessive burden on those engaged in informal platform work. Otherwise, the regulation meant to protect workers can end up discouraging the very formalisation it should be supporting.
Two steps forward
Rather than an immediate strict binary classification of workers, regulation should take a gradual approach – one that accounts for institutional capacities and economic interests, while balancing innovation with worker rights. This means prioritising the most specific risks and protections first through two actions: lowering barriers to formal employment, and extending protections regardless of status. To lower barriers to formal employment, platforms themselves could help drive formalisation through automatic enrolment upon registration or direct subscription to social protection schemes. Second, administrations should extend protections regardless of status. and strengthen social protection for those not covered by existing schemes. North Macedonia’s ongoing EU-supported project to register and cover self-employed workers offers a promising protections-first solution to platform workers currently falling outside traditional labour safeguards.
Governments and social partners could use existing reform momentum to open structured consultations, drawing on the OECD’s Digital Toolkit as a practical starting point. Important is that all stakeholders are included to make sure that regulation does not backfire.
A window of opportunity
The Western Balkans have a unique window of opportunity to regulate platform work. Domestically, there is momentum for labour market reforms and for tackling informal work. EU accession adds further impetus to frame platform work as part of a comprehensive modernisation agenda. The Platform Work Directive is a useful reference point – but a reference point only. The Western Balkans’ platform economy has different drivers, different sectors, and different stakes. The region deserves regulation built for its own reality. Done well, that regulation could in the coming years, turn platform work into a recognised, protected, and taxed form of employment that works for workers, platforms, and states alike.