Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-5r2nc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T18:39:20.585Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - Ten Years of the European Semester

From the Sovereign Debt Crisis to the COVID-19 Crisis

from Part III - The Economic and Fiscal Dimensions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2023

By
Edgars Eihmanis
Edited by
Dariusz Adamski ,
Fabian Amtenbrink  and
Jakob de Haan
Dariusz Adamski
Affiliation:
University of Wroclaw
Fabian Amtenbrink
Affiliation:
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Jakob de Haan
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
Get access

Summary

This chapter traces how the European Semester – its policy goals, institutions, and legitimacy – have changed over the decade 2011–21. Drawing on the most recent political science scholarship, the chapter makes a three-fold argument. First, it argues that the Commission has travelled a long way from pushing fiscal consolidation and structural reforms through enforced fiscal and macroeconomic policy surveillance to emphasizing social investment. Second, the chapter challenges the widely held notion that the Semester suffers from limited effectiveness and argues that its country-specific recommendations can have indirect effects in the longer term, such as putting new issues on the agenda and shaping national policy debate. However, the chapter expects that the Commission’s influence over national policy processes will rise in the post-pandemic period through the conditionality of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Third, the chapter argues that representation of broad social interests changes over time. Social partners, civil society, and national parliaments may be excluded from EU economic governance processes but tend to adapt to EU institutional changes over time.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of European Monetary, Economic and Financial Integration , pp. 290 - 304
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alesina, A., Favero, C., and Giavazzi, F. (2020). Austerity: When It Works and When It Doesn’t. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Andor, L. (2013). Developing the Social Dimension of a Deep and Genuine Economic and Monetary Union. Brussels: European Policy Centre.Google Scholar
Baraggia, A., and Bonelli, M. (2021). Linking money to values: The new rule of law conditionality regulation and its constitutional challenges. German Law Journal 23(2), 131–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barcevicius, E., Weishaupt, T., and Zeitlin, J. (eds.) (2014). Assessing the Open Method of Coordination: Institutional Design and National Influence of EU Social Policy Coordination. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Barnes, S., and Oliinyk, I. (2021). Policy Insight | The EU’s economic governance review. Road-testing alternative fiscal rules? | CEPS | PubAffairs Bruxelles. www.pubaffairsbruxelles.eu/policy-insight-the-eus-economic-governance-review-road-testing-alternative-fiscal-rules-ceps/Google Scholar
Bauer, M. W., and Becker, S. (2014). The unexpected winner of the crisis: The European Commission’s strengthened role in economic governance. Journal of European Integration 36(3), 213–229.Google Scholar
Bekker, S. (2013). The EU’s stricter economic governance: A step towards more binding coordination of social policies. WZB Discussion Paper SP IV 2013–501. Berlin: Social Science Research Center.Google Scholar
Bekker, S. (2021). The EU’s recovery and resilience facility: A next phase in EU socioeconomic governance? Politics and Governance 9(3), 175–185.Google Scholar
Bekker, S. and Klosse, S. (2014). The changing legal context of employment policy coordination: How do social policy issues fare after the crisis? European Labour Law Journal 5(1), 6–17.Google Scholar
Bokhorst, D. (2019). Governing imbalances in the economic and monetary union: A political economy analysis of the macroeconomic imbalance procedure. PhD diss., University of Amsterdam. https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=85d7b956-00d5-47ac-95d2-284115ca9bbfGoogle Scholar
Bokhorst, D. (2022). The influence of the European Semester: Case study analysis and lessons for its post-pandemic transformation. Journal of Common Market Studies 60(1), 101–117.Google Scholar
Bongardt, A., and Torres, F. (2022). The European Green Deal: More than an exit strategy to the pandemic crisis, a building block of a sustainable European economic model. Journal of Common Market Studies 60(1), 170–185.Google Scholar
Borońska-Hryniewiecka, K. (2021). Accountability revisited: Parliamentary perspectives on the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Stability, Economic Coordination, and Governance. Politics and Governance 9(3), 145–154.Google Scholar
Buti, M. (2020). Economic policy in the rough: A European journey. Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/eventsGoogle Scholar
Buti, M. (2021). The Man Inside: A European Journey through Two Crises. Milan: EGEA Spa – Bocconi University Press.Google Scholar
Cantillon, B., and Vandenbroucke, F. (2014) Reconciling Work and Poverty Reduction: How Successful Are European Welfare States? Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Closa Montero, C., de León, F. G., and González, G. H. (2021). Pragmatism and the limits to the European Parliament’s strategies for self-empowerment. Politics and Governance 9(3), 163–174.Google Scholar
Copeland, P., and Daly, M. (2018). The European Semester and EU social policy. Journal of Common Market Studies 56(5), 1001–1018.Google Scholar
Copelovitch, M., Frieden, J., and Walter, S. (2016). The political economy of the euro crisis. Comparative Political Studies 49(7), 811–840.Google Scholar
Corti, F. (2022). The Politicisation of Social Europe: Conflict Dynamics and Welfare Integration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Corti, F., and Ferrer, J. N. (2021). Steering and Monitoring the Recovery and Resilience Plans: Reading between the Lines. Brussels: CEPS.Google Scholar
Costamagna, F. (2018). National social spaces as adjustment variables in the EMU: A critical legal appraisal. European Law Journal 24(2–3), 163–190.Google Scholar
Crespy, A., and Menz, G. (2015). Commission entrepreneurship and the debasing of social Europe before and after the eurocrisis. Journal of Common Market Studies 53(4), 753–768.Google Scholar
Crespy, A., and Vanheuverzwijn, P. (2019). What ‘Brussels’ means by structural reforms: Empty signifier or constructive ambiguity? Comparative European Politics 17(1), 92–111.Google Scholar
Crum, B. (2013). Saving the euro at the cost of democracy? Journal of Common Market Studies 51(4), 614–630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crum, B. (2018). Parliamentary accountability in multilevel governance: What role for parliaments in post-crisis EU economic governance? Journal of European Public Policy 25(2), 268–286.Google Scholar
Csehi, R., and Schulz, D. F. (2022). The EU’s New Economic Governance Framework and budgetary decision-making in the Member States: Boon or bane for throughput legitimacy? Journal of Common Market Studies 60(1), 118–135.Google Scholar
Daly, M. (2012). Paradigms in EU social policy: A critical account of Europe 2020. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 18(3), 273–284.Google Scholar
Darvas, Z., and Leandro, Á. (2015). The limitations of policy coordination in the euro area under the European Semester. Bruegel Policy Contribution. www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/126693Google Scholar
Dawson, M. (2018). New governance and the displacement of social Europe: The case of the European Semester. European Constitutional Law Review 14(1), 191–209.Google Scholar
De Haan, J., Hessel, J., and Gilbert, N. (2015). Reforming the architecture of EMU: Ensuring stability in Europe. In Badinger, H. and Nitsch, V. (eds.), Handbook of the Economics of European Integration. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
De la Porte, C., and Heins, E. (2016). A new era of European integration? Governance of labour market and social policy since the sovereign debt crisi. In De La Porte, C. and Heins, E. (eds.), The Sovereign Debt Crisis, the EU and Welfare State Reform. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 15–41.Google Scholar
De la Porte, C., and Jensen, M. D. (2021). The Next Generation EU: An analysis of the dimensions of conflict behind the deal. Social Policy & Administration 55(2), 388–402.Google Scholar
D’Erman, V., and Verdun, A. (2022) An introduction: Macroeconomic policy coordination and domestic politics: Policy coordination in the EU from the European Semester to the Covid-19 crisis. Journal of Common Market Studies 60(1), 3–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Draghi, M. (2020) Draghi: We face a war against coronavirus and must mobilise accordingly. Financial Times, 25 March. www.ft.com/content/c6d2de3a-6ec5-11ea-89df-41bea055720bGoogle Scholar
EESC (2021) Involvement of Organised Civil Society in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans – What Works and What Does Not? Brussels: European Economic and Social Committee.Google Scholar
Efstathiou, K., and Wolff, G. B. (2018) Is the European Semester effective and useful? Bruegel Policy Contribution. www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/208014Google Scholar
Eihmanis, E. (2018). Cherry-picking external constraints: Latvia and EU economic governance, 2008–2014. Journal of European Public Policy 25(2), 231–249.Google Scholar
Eihmanis, E. (2020). Between Democracy, Business Power and International Organisations: Explaining Redistributive Tax Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe. Florence: European University Institute.Google Scholar
ESM (2021). EU fiscal rules: Reform considerations. European Stability Mechanism.Google Scholar
EUIFI (2021). EU fiscal and economic governance review: A contribution from the Network of Independent EU Fiscal Institutions. EU Independent Fiscal Institutions.Google Scholar
European Commission (2015). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Central Bank: On steps towards completing Economic and Monetary Union. Brussels. https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2015/EN/1-2015-600-EN-F1-1.PDFGoogle Scholar
European Commission (2020). A new industrial strategy for Europe. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0102&from=ENGoogle Scholar
European Commission (2021). Questions and answers: The Recovery and Resilience Facility, 2021. European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_21_1870Google Scholar
Fabbrini, F. (2022). The legal architecture of the economic responses to COVID-19: EMU beyond the pandemic. Journal of Common Market Studies 60(1), 186–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabbrini, S., and Puetter, U. (2016). Integration without supranationalisation: Studying the lead roles of the European Council and the Council in post-Lisbon EU politics. Journal of European Integration 38(5), 481–495.Google Scholar
Fasone, C. (2014). European economic governance and parliamentary representation: What place for the European Parliament? European Law Journal 20(2), 164–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fasone, C. (2021). Do independent fiscal institutions enhance parliamentary accountability in the eurozone? Politics and Governance 9(3), 135–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrera, M. (2017). The Stein Rokkan Lecture 2016: Mission impossible? Reconciling economic and social Europe after the euro crisis and Brexit. European Journal of Political Research 56(1), 3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genschel, P., and Jachtenfuchs, M. (2014). Beyond the Regulatory Polity? The European Integration of Core State Powers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Graziano, P., and Hartlapp, M. (2019). The end of social Europe? Understanding EU social policy change. Journal of European Public Policy 26(10), 1484–1501.Google Scholar
Haas, J. S., D’Erman, V. J., Schulz, D. F., and Verdun, A. (2020). Economic and fiscal policy coordination after the crisis: Is the European Semester promoting more or less state intervention? Journal of European Integration 42(3), 327–344.Google Scholar
Heidenreich, M., and Zeitlin, J. (eds.) (2009). Changing European Employment and Welfare Regimes: The Influence of the Open Method of Coordination on National Reforms, 1st ed. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Heins, E., and de la Porte, C. (2015). The sovereign debt crisis, the EU and welfare state reform. Comparative European Politics 13(1), 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helgadóttir, O. (2016). The Bocconi boys go to Brussels: Italian economic ideas, professional networks and European austerity. Journal of European Public Policy 23(3), 392–409.Google Scholar
Hodson, D. (2013). The little engine that wouldn’t: Supranational entrepreneurship and the Barroso Commission. Journal of European Integration 35(3), 301–314.Google Scholar
Hooghe, L., and Marks, G. (2019). Grand theories of European integration in the twenty-first century. Journal of European Public Policy 26(8), 1113–1133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howarth, D., and Verdun, A. (2020). Economic and Monetary Union at twenty: A stocktaking of a tumultuous second decade: Introduction. Journal of European Integration 42(3), 287–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutter, S., and Kriesi, H. (2019). Politicizing Europe in times of crisis. Journal of European Public Policy 26(7), 996–1017.Google Scholar
ICNL (2021). Participation of civil society organisations in the preparation of the EU National Recovery and Resilience Plans. https://civilsocietyeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/CSE-ECNL-Participation-of-CSOs-in-the-preparation-of-the-EU-NRRPs_spread.pdfGoogle Scholar
Jančić, D. (2016). National parliaments and EU fiscal integration. European Law Journal 22(2), 225–249.Google Scholar
Jančič, D. (2017). National Parliaments after the Lisbon Treaty and the Euro Crisis: Resilience or Resignation? Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, E. (2021). Did the EU’s crisis response meet the moment? Current History 120(824), 93–99.Google Scholar
Kreilinger, V. (2018). Scrutinising the European Semester in national parliaments: What are the drivers of parliamentary involvement? Journal of European Integration 40(3), 325–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kröger, S., and Bellamy, R. (2016). Beyond a constraining dissensus: The role of national parliaments in domesticating and normalising the politicization of European integration. Comparative European Politics 14(2), 131–153.Google Scholar
Ladi, S., and Tsarouhas, D. D. (2020). EU economic governance and Covid-19: Policy learning and windows of opportunity. Journal of European Integration 42(8), 1041–1056.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laffan, B., and Schlosser, P. (2016). Public finances in Europe: Fortifying EU economic governance in the shadow of the crisis. Journal of European Integration 38(3), 237–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lord, C. (2017). How can parliaments contribute to the legitimacy of the European Semester? Parliamentary Affairs 70(4), 673–690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maatsch, A. (2016). Parliaments and the Economic Governance of the European Union: Talking Shops or Deliberative Bodies? London: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Maatsch, A. (2017). Effectiveness of the European Semester: Explaining domestic consent and contestation. Parliamentary Affairs 70(4), 691–709.Google Scholar
Maatsch, A., and Cooper, I. (2017). Governance without democracy? Analysing the role of parliaments in European economic governance after the crisis: Introduction to the special issue. Parliamentary Affairs 70(4), 645–654.Google Scholar
Mazzucato, M. (2018). Mission-Oriented Research & Innovation in the European Union: A Problemsolving Approach to Fuel Innovation Led Growth. Leuven: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/360325Google Scholar
Moschella, M. (2020). What role for the European Semester in the recovery plan? European Parliament. www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2020/651377/IPOL_IDA(2020)651377_EN.pdfGoogle Scholar
Munta, M. (2020). Building national ownership of the European Semester: The role of European Semester officers. European Politics and Society 21(1), 36–52.Google Scholar
Munta, M. (2021). EU Socio-Economic Governance in Central and Eastern Europe: The European Semester and National Employment Policies, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nguyen, T. (2021). How much money is a lot of money? Verfassungsblog. https://verfassungsblog.de/how-much-money-is-a-lot-of-money/Google Scholar
Nguyen, T., and Redeker, N. (2022). How to make the marriage work: Wedding the Recovery and Resilience Facility and European Semester, 2022. Hertie School. www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/detail/publication/how-to-make-the-marriage-workGoogle Scholar
Pisani-Ferry, J. (2020a). European Union recovery funds: strings attached, but not tied up in knots. Bruegel Policy Contribution. www.bruegel.org/2020/10/european-union-recovery-funds-strings-attached-but-not-tied-up-in-knots/Google Scholar
Pisani-Ferry, J. (2020b). Europe’s recovery gamble | Bruegel. www.bruegel.org/2020/09/europes-recovery-gamble/Google Scholar
Pochet, P., and Degryse, C. (2013). Monetary union and the stakes for democracy and social policy. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 19(1), 103–116.Google Scholar
Raudla, R., Bur, S., and Keel, K. (2020). The effects of crises and European fiscal governance reforms on the budgetary processes of Member States. Journal of Common Market Studies 58(3), 740–756.Google Scholar
Renda, A. (2021). The EU industrial strategy: Towards a post-growth agenda? Intereconomics 56(3), 133–138.Google Scholar
Rittberger, B. (2014). Integration without representation? The European Parliament and the reform of economic governance in the EU. Journal of Common Market Studies 52(6), 1174–1183.Google Scholar
Schelkle, W. (2021). Fiscal integration in an experimental union: How path-breaking was the EU’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Journal of Common Market Studies 59(S1), 44–55.Google Scholar
Schlosser, P. (2019). Europe’s New Fiscal Union. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, V. (2015). Changing the policies, politics, and processes of the Eurozone in crisis: Will this time be different? In Natali, D. and Vanhercke, B. (eds.), Social Policy in the European Union: State of Play 2015. Brussels: European Trade Union Institute, European Social Observatory, pp. 33–64.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V. A. (2019). Politicization in the EU: Between national politics and EU political dynamics. Journal of European Public Policy 26(7), 1018–1036.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V. A. (2020). Europe’s Crisis of Legitimacy: Governing by Rules and Ruling by Numbers in the Eurozone. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skazlic, I. (2021). Routine or rare activity? A quantitative assessment of parliamentary scrutiny in the European Semester. Politics and Governance 9(3), 112–123.Google Scholar
Tesche, T. (2022). Pandemic politics: The European Union in times of the coronavirus emergency. Journal of Common Market Studies 60(2), 480–496.Google Scholar
Trubek, D., and Trubek, L. (2005). Hard and soft law in the construction of social Europe: The role of the Open Method of Co-ordination. European Law Journal 11(3), 343–364.Google Scholar
Van der Veer, R., and Haverland, M. (2018). Bread and butter or bread and circuses? European Union Politics, 19(3), 524–545.Google Scholar
Vanhercke, B., and Verdun, A. (2022). The European Semester as Goldilocks: Macroeconomic policy coordination and the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Journal of Common Market Studies 60(1), 204–223.Google Scholar
Vanhercke, B., Zeitlin, J., and Zwinkels, A. (2015). Further socializing the European Semester. www.accesseurope.org/research/publications/5-policy-report/15-further-socializing-the-european-semesterGoogle Scholar
Verdun, A. (1996). An ‘asymmetrical’ economic and monetary union in the EU: Perceptions of monetary authorities and social partners. Journal of European Integration 20(1), 59–81.Google Scholar
Verdun, A., and Zeitlin, J. (2018). Introduction: the European Semester as a new architecture of EU socioeconomic governance in theory and practice. Journal of European Public Policy 25(2), 137–148.Google Scholar
Vesan, P., and Pansardi, P. (2021). Speaking social Europe: A paradigmatic shift in the European Commission Presidents’ social policy discourse? Journal of European Social Policy 31(4), 365–379.Google Scholar
Vesan, P., Corti, F., and Sabato, S. (2021). The European Commission’s entrepreneurship and the social dimension of the European Semester: From the European Pillar of Social Rights to the Covid-19 pandemic. Comparative European Politics 19(3), 277–295.Google Scholar
Von der Leyen, U. (2019). President von der Leyen on the European Green Deal. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_19_6749Google Scholar
Von der Leyen, U. (2021). Speech by President von der Leyen at the European Parliament Plenary on the European Parliament’s scrutiny on the ongoing assessment by the Commission and the Council of the national recovery and resilience plans. European Commission, Brussels. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_21_2887Google Scholar
Warren, T., Holden, P., and Howell, K. E. (2017). The European Commission and fiscal governance reform: A strategic actor? West European Politics 40(6), 1310–1330.Google Scholar
Wolff, S., and Ladi, S. (2020). European Union responses to the Covid-19 pandemic: Adaptability in times of permanent emergency. Journal of European Integration 42(8), 1025–1040.Google Scholar
Woźniakowski, T. P. (2021). Accountability in EU economic governance: European commissioners in Polish parliament. Politics and Governance 9(3), 155–162.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, J. (2009). The Open Method of Coordination and reform of national social and employment policies: Influences, mechanisms, effects. In Heidenreich, M. and Zeitlin, J. (eds.), Changing European Employment and Welfare Regimes: The Influence of the Open Method of Coordination on National Reforms. London: Routledge, pp. 214–245.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, J., and Vanhercke, B. (2014). Socializing the European Semester? Economic Governance and Social Policy Coordination in Europe 2020. Stockholm: Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, J., and Vanhercke, B. (2018). Socializing the European Semester: EU social and economic policy co-ordination in crisis and beyond. Journal of European Public Policy 25(2), 149–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeitlin, J., Nicoli, F., and Laffan, B. (2019). Introduction: The European Union beyond the polycrisis? Integration and politicization in an age of shifting cleavages. Journal of European Public Policy 26(7), 963–976.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, J., Pochet, P., and Magnusson, L. (eds.) (2005). The Open Method of Co-ordination in Action: The European Employment and Social Inclusion Strategies. Bern: Peter Lang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×