Economic Governance and the New Frontiers of EU Social and Employment Policy

Abstract

The European Commission recently incorporated social and employment indicators scoreboards into the European Semester system as a way of deepening the European Monetary Union‘s (EMU) social dimension and strengthening the „soft” coordination of national employment and social policies. On the one hand, closer alignment of social, employment, and macroeconomic policies could mean more cohesive and socially responsive governance. On the other hand, it may also contribute to further subordination of social policies to the EMU fiscal discipline, macroeconomic surveillance, and growth objectives; and prompt regulatory competition forcing downward convergence. Drawing on past experiences, particularly the EU-level and national crisis responses adopted since 2008, papers in this panel critically examine and evaluate these newest policy coordination developments, and/or reflect on their possible implications for future development of EU social policy (including EU labour law), as well as systems of social protection and labour and employment law in individual member states.