The (In)Effectiveness of the European Employment Strategy

Copeland, Paul and ter Haar, Beryl (2011) The (In)Effectiveness of the European Employment Strategy. [Conference Proceedings]

Preview

PDF - Published Version Download (374Kb) | Preview

Abstract

Qualitative studies of the European Employment Strategy produce conflicting accounts of its effectiveness within the Member States. Furthermore, such studies are limited in that they predominantly concern a small number of country case studies and one or two particular policy issues. Obtaining an accurate overview of the effectiveness of the OMC is therefore problematic. This article constructs a quantitative framework to analyse the effectivnes of the EES and applies it to ten EU Member States between 2005-2009. The analysis differentiates between shallow voluntary compliance, whereby member state responses to the EES represent activities which they themselves identify as a priority, and deep voluntary normative compliance, whereby member state activity is related to specific Council recommendations to improve policies in a particular area. The paper finds substantial evidence for both forms of compliance, however, an analysis of the formation of country specific recommendations, reveals the deeply politically negotiated nature of their formation and the limitations of our findings.

Actions (login required)