This paper deals with the ideas underpinning the EU's socioeconomic governance by focusing on the notion of structural reforms in the framework of the European Semester. It asks which policy ideas are constitutive of the notion of structural reforms in the EU and whether said meaning has changed over time to tackle slow growth and rising inequalities. Our demonstration is mainly grounded on a content analysis of all European Semester documents since 2011 (including Annual Growth Surveys, Alert Mechanism Reports, Euro Area Recommendations, and Country-Specific Recommendations) and completed by a short series of interviews with European and national officials involved in the European Semester. We find that, despite floating meaning, the notion of structural reforms exhibits a persisting core consisting of typically neoliberal policy recipes such as the liberalisation of products and services markets, the deregulation of labour markets, and public administration reform. At the same time, structural reforms have covered eclectic-if not contradictory-policy ideas, thus accompanying a discursive turn towards more fiscal flexibility and (social) investment. Rather than a constructive dynamic towards a renewed agenda, such ambiguity, we argue, reflects a fundamental, asymmetric ongoing battle of ideas within the EU.
The notion of ownership is well known in relation to global governance. In the realm of EU macro‐economic coordination, it has become a buzzword since the revamping process of the European Semester in 2015. This article investigates how ownership by four types of domestic actors (governments, administrations, parliaments and social partners) manifests itself in the European Semester. We conceptualize three types of ownership, namely institutional, political, and cognitive. Using network analysis, semi‐structured interviews, and a small‐scale survey, we find that ownership is strongest among governments and administrations which are able to shape the outputs of the European Semester (institutional ownership) with little political disagreement (political ownership). While national parliaments display low levels of all types of ownership, employers and unions exhibit relatively strong cognitive ownership. We conclude that the European Semester remains a bureaucratic process contributing to building a multi‐level administrative space rather than an arena for political debates.
Depuis le début de la crise, l’UE a développé des nouveaux instruments de gouvernance économique, au cœur desquels s’inscrit le semestre européen. Les avis académiques divergent quant à savoir quel acteur institutionnel est sorti renforcé de ces réformes. Cet article vise à contribuer à ce débat en examinant comment le semestre européen a été mis en application par la Commission depuis 2011. Il avance comme argument principal que malgré la domination des États membres sur le processus décisionnel durant la crise, la Commission jouit d’un pouvoir discrétionnaire considérable sur la mise en application du semestre. Ceci s’explique par la nature incomplète des contrats de délégation passés entre les États membres et la Commission. L’article illustre ceci en explorant le pouvoir discrétionnaire de la Commission dans la mise en application de la Procédure de déséquilibres macroéconomiques et du pacte de stabilité et de croissance, ainsi que dans l’élaboration des procédures du semestre européen. En même temps, l’article montre que la Commission utilise ce pouvoir discrétionnaire de manière subtile, alternant entre flexibilité et rigidité.
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