The second tradition is linked to the idea of equal access of all citizens to state employment and equal conditions of employment for all government employees. It is best illustrated by France, and followed by a majority of European continental countries as different as Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, or Spain. This implies specific rules for recruitment and career, usually different from those of labor law — but not always, as the case of the Netherlands demon-states, but in most other respects with variations in time and space, the content of civil service regulations need not be very different from that of labour law. In most countries labour law has come closer and closer to civil service law. The fact that government employees enjoy tenure – but this is no longer the case in Sweden nor in Italy since a few years ago — should be put in relation to the labour law provisions which tend to protect employees with a contract without time limitation. In practice, however, almost all civil servants tend to enjoy lifetime appointments due to the combination of two factors: government activities are not linked to market performance and thus government jobs tend to be much more stable than private sector positions; and in most countries unions are quite powerful in public service and have the safeguard of tenured positions as one of their major goals.