"The European employment strategy: Policy integration by the back-door?"

Ardy, Brian and Begg, Iain. (2001) "The European employment strategy: Policy integration by the back-door?". In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2001 (7th), May 31-June 2, 2001, pages 12, Madison, Wisconsin.

Abstract

Since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, the EU has paid increasing attention to employment creation, yet has few formal powers in this area. A series of agreements, known as “processes” and named after the city where they were agreed, has been made to co-ordinate employment policy. This paper will examine how the “Luxembourg processes,” under which member states structure their employment policies, works and will offer a critique of the ‘open co-ordination’ approach to the employment policy. The focus will then shift to the extent to which the OMC represents simply a first stage in the eventual communiterisation of policy or new method in its own right. It will also confront the question of whether this form of policy can be expected to go far enough to constitute a sufficiently robust “real” economy counterpart to monetary union.