Beyond the neoliberal paradigm? Images of Social Europe in open method of coordination employment peer reviews

Abstract

This article seeks to understand how, within the open method of coordination peer review process, the European Union (EU) together with member states envision the processes of European integration within the employment policy field. Our theoretical framework draws light on alternatives, nuances, and tendencies of discursive potential for transcending the neoliberal image at the core of the European Social Policy literature. A content analysis of employment guidelines (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) and best practices in the peer review programs for employment policies (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) shows how the EU seeks to find credible roles for itself in employment policy and how in this process different ideas and even more practices prevail. We find clues for transcending the neoliberal picture, visions of a different Europe that is more in accord with the European values of liberal Social Europe and cosmopolitan Social Europe than is generally proposed in this context.

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“…Accordingly, EU social policy has developed slowly in the past with a focus on coordinative policies over distributive ones, as the latter have often not been feasible due to a lack of independent, dedicated resources (Hartlapp, 2019). Linked to these slow developments, the accusation that the EU is too ‘neoliberal’ to countenance a social turn is also a fairly staple element of debates on a Social Europe (Van Gerven and Ossewaarde, 2018), although the term is occasionally used in vague, disparate ways. However, despite all of these limitations, the overall salience of the idea of a Social Europe, such as in speeches of former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (Vesan and Pansardi, 2021), indicates that social policy and EU integration often intersect in debate contributions.…”

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