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SOFT EUROPEANIZATION?: THE INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN EMPLOYMENT STRATEGY IN PROCESSES AND EMPLOYMENT POLICIES IN EU MEMBER STATES
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this has been the case for most member States.
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We should not expect that member States
increase spending on passive labor market policies after the introduction of the EES, because that would go against the policy prescriptions dictated by the EU. Therefore, the EES informs policy-makers that decreasing the amount of policies and the budget destined to ALMPs is policy that contradicts the objectives and goals of the common European labor market policies. In addition, by ‘drawing lessons’ from the process attached to the EES (e.g., peer-reviews, exchange of best practices, EMCO committees, NAPs, regional action plans), the administrators of policy in member States are able to be informed about other member States’ policy lines and institutional configurations; for example, what ‘activation’ means and entails in The Netherlands and in Greece. This extra set of information helps national policy-makers to (re)formulate their policy options and the potential shapes and scopes of courses of action, e.g.., types of policies, institutions, and relations with the social partners, and programs. In this sense, the EES establishes the limits of the range of possibilities, and policy and institutional solutions that member States’ policy administrators should consider when formulating policy. Moreover, if a high percentage of the budget in a member State is already allocated towards active labor policies and institutions or if it has been actively increasing the budget destined to active measures and/or adopting active labor policies, the EES reinforces the development and maintenance of active labor institutions and policies in this member State. The re-ranking of policies pushes national actors to reformulate courses of action that otherwise they would not have followed. In this case, reformulation of policy occurs because a group of national policy-makers visualize policy X as necessary, plus ‘the shadow of Europe’ is present. Moreover, this stage of reformulation opens the door for (further) bargaining and potential cooperation among involved parties. To increase the chances of bargaining and cooperation, involved actors always have the option to quote ‘Europe’ to legitimise their actions to their colleagues and members of other organizations. Policy-makers and civil servants are aware that in the future (once policy is in place) they will always have the possibility of referring to ‘Europe’ as a justification to legitimise their actions in the eyes of the public. Hence, throughout the process of policy formulation policy-makers may resort to the tactic of ‘it is necessary because Europe said so’ to persuade other national actors to reformulate their position with the end of bargaining, potential cooperation and coordination on the matter. Yet, how can we understand frame these developments. The following section presents an argument about the common thread of these developments—the provision of information. 6. Information and Learning What are the mechanisms that push for the inclusion of a problem in the domestic agenda and/or the reformulation of policy principles and structures? In other words, how and why national administrations frame certain conditions as problems and/or engage in a process of change during the policy (re)formulation process? In this section, I provide a brief explanation of these questions. Information is the key concept to explain these occurrences. The EES process provides information about a set of desirable policies and about how national actors should frame employment problems. In addition, it supplies member States with a set of ideas about potential
34
For example, in the 2002 Spanish NAP, the government states, “The European Employment Strategy has
led to a considerable increase in the number of unemployed people taking part in active policies, and in the funds allocated to these policies. In 1997, 591, 361 actions were undertaken using INEM funds alone [...] In 2001, 1,482,043 actions were carried out [...] an increase of 83% for the INEM funds. Lastly, funds for active policies have been increasing every year: in 1997, active policies represented 19.9% of the INEM budget, and in 2002, the figure is 36.4 %”(2002 Spanish NAP, 27). In addition, refer to Tobes Portillo.
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| | Authors: Lopez-Santana, Mariely. |
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19
this has been the case for most member States.
34
We should not expect that member States
increase spending on passive labor market policies after the introduction of the EES, because that
would go against the policy prescriptions dictated by the EU. Therefore, the EES informs policy-
makers that decreasing the amount of policies and the budget destined to ALMPs is policy that
contradicts the objectives and goals of the common European labor market policies.
In addition, by ‘drawing lessons’ from the process attached to the EES (e.g., peer-reviews,
exchange of best practices, EMCO committees, NAPs, regional action plans), the administrators
of policy in member States are able to be informed about other member States’ policy lines and
institutional configurations; for example, what ‘activation’ means and entails in The Netherlands
and in Greece. This extra set of information helps national policy-makers to (re)formulate their
policy options and the potential shapes and scopes of courses of action, e.g.., types of policies,
institutions, and relations with the social partners, and programs. In this sense, the EES
establishes the limits of the range of possibilities, and policy and institutional solutions that
member States’ policy administrators should consider when formulating policy. Moreover, if a
high percentage of the budget in a member State is already allocated towards active labor policies
and institutions or if it has been actively increasing the budget destined to active measures and/or
adopting active labor policies, the EES reinforces the development and maintenance of active
labor institutions and policies in this member State.
The re-ranking of policies pushes national actors to reformulate courses of action that otherwise
they would not have followed. In this case, reformulation of policy occurs because a group of
national policy-makers visualize policy X as necessary, plus ‘the shadow of Europe’ is present.
Moreover, this stage of reformulation opens the door for (further) bargaining and potential
cooperation among involved parties. To increase the chances of bargaining and cooperation,
involved actors always have the option to quote ‘Europe’ to legitimise their actions to their
colleagues and members of other organizations. Policy-makers and civil servants are aware that in
the future (once policy is in place) they will always have the possibility of referring to ‘Europe’
as a justification to legitimise their actions in the eyes of the public. Hence, throughout the
process of policy formulation policy-makers may resort to the tactic of ‘it is necessary because
Europe said so’ to persuade other national actors to reformulate their position with the end of
bargaining, potential cooperation and coordination on the matter. Yet, how can we understand
frame these developments. The following section presents an argument about the common thread
of these developments—the provision of information.
6. Information and Learning
What are the mechanisms that push for the inclusion of a problem in the domestic agenda and/or
the reformulation of policy principles and structures? In other words, how and why national
administrations frame certain conditions as problems and/or engage in a process of change during
the policy (re)formulation process? In this section, I provide a brief explanation of these
questions. Information is the key concept to explain these occurrences. The EES process
provides information about a set of desirable policies and about how national actors should frame
employment problems. In addition, it supplies member States with a set of ideas about potential
34
For example, in the 2002 Spanish NAP, the government states, “The European Employment Strategy has
led to a considerable increase in the number of unemployed people taking part in active policies, and in the
funds allocated to these policies. In 1997, 591, 361 actions were undertaken using INEM funds alone [...]
In 2001, 1,482,043 actions were carried out [...] an increase of 83% for the INEM funds. Lastly, funds for
active policies have been increasing every year: in 1997, active policies represented 19.9% of the INEM
budget, and in 2002, the figure is 36.4 %”(2002 Spanish NAP, 27). In addition, refer to Tobes Portillo.
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