Does the European Employment Strategy favour the convergence of activation policies? The cases of Spain and the United Kingdom (original) (raw)
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Journal of European Public Policy, 2006
ABSTRACT The Treaty of Amsterdam launched the European Employment Strategy, a supranational non-binding instrument to boost employment rates and competitiveness. The open method of coordination, a new governance regulatory instrument, rules this common strategy. The article argues that the ‘framing effect’ of soft law is significant to policy-making across states, especially in the case of policy formulation. The analysis is grounded in the argument that to understand the effect of ‘foreign’ non-binding governance instruments researchers studying these types of governance instruments should unpack the ‘black box of policy- making’ and focus on process. Specifically, the article contributes to the literature on Europeanization by studying an instance of ‘soft Europeanization.’ To sustain and illustrate my argument, I present data from interviews conducted in the European Union, in Sweden, Spain, and Belgium at the national and subnational levels
European Employment Strategy and Spanish Labour Market Policies
2005
The paper aim is to analyse the influence of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in the implementation of the Spanish labour market policies. The first part of the paper describes the evolution and content of the EES. In the second one, the definition of activation is also explained. In addition to that, the ways how the EES develops and promotes active labour market policies are examined.
The European Employment Strategy
2007
Although the Euopean Employment Strategy (EES) has applied to the new Member States only after accession, it had shaped the Czech employment policy already well before that date. Therefore, the question arises, how the EES could gain such influence, despite the fact that the EES represents neither a very strong kind of EU regulation nor was pushed by the European Commission in course of its pre-accession strategy. Europeanisation theory suggests that basically institutional misfit between EU and national regulation as well as certain national conditions may explain the adaptation of national policies to EU norms. However, as the EES represents a very soft type of EU regulation, the cognitive influence on dominant national actors plays an important role for its impact. In the Czech case, the EU has been quite successful in influencing the agenda setting for the employment-the interpretation of labour market problems was shaped by the aims of the EES and led to an activation and streamlining of the employment policy. However, it was less the official employment policy review as part of the pre-accssion strategy than the model function of the EES that was decesive for successful and early adaptation.
The government of activation policies by EU institutions
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2007
Purpose -This contribution, using EU institutions' legitimacy-seeking procedures as an analytical framework, aims to discuss the political traps of EU governance processes taking place in EU bodies in pursuit of a new institutionalisation of the Lisbon strategy. Design/methodology/approach -The approach is in the form of a discursive analysis.
European Online Integration Papers, 2009
As the European Union (EU) has strengthened, scholars have emphasized the development of multilevel governance structures and the salience of subnational actors. With the launch of the Open Method of Coordination and the increasing development of nonbinding regulations, we must re-consider the potential of this type of governance instrument to serve as an intergovernmental and intra-governmental coordinative mechanism; thus contributing to the development of multilevel governance structures. This paper addresses this issue by focusing on the implementation of the European Employment Strategy and its potential to serve as an intra-governmental coordinative instrument. I argue that this nonbinding instrument does informally (de facto) influence intra-governmental relations in member states. In addition, subnational actors have transferred many of these soft principles to lower levels of government. These propositions are explored using data gathered in the EU, Spain, Belgium, and Sweden at both the national and the sub national levels.
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2013
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The European Employment policy: from ends to means
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European Employment Strategy : : An Instrument of Convergence for the New Member States?
Over the past ten years, employment has remained the number one concern of Europeans, also in the new EU member states. According to the latest Eurobarometer opinion polls, EU citizens have more confidence in the European Union than in their own governments to improve the employment situation in their country. European leaders do not seem to have grasped the full extent of this challenge, whether during the accession period of the new member states or since 2004, according to the analysis presented here by Catherine Palpant. She notes that the major tool in this area, the European Employment Strategy, which aim since 1997 has been to boost the labour markets in and coordinate the national employment policies of the former 15 member states, has not yet delivered convincing results for the 10 new member states. She tries to establish why it has failed by reviewing the socio-economic characteristics of these countries, recent trends, the social policies implemented during the transition period, and the contents of the national action plans for employment. Through an in-depth examination of five member states, she demonstrates how the European Employment Strategy, now fully incorporated into the integrated approach for Growth and Jobs of the revised Lisbon Strategy, has the potential to be an effective instrument of convergence for the EU 25 in terms of employment policy, working conditions and labour markets. By following her advice, rather than grumble about the distance that separates old and new member states from the European social model, we should try to explain better to the new member states what the EES is about, by fostering a real partnership, by encouraging them to experiment with new policy instruments, and by defining common objectives better adapted to their national priorities.