Involving the European social partners in the EU’s economic governance: actors, mechanisms and strategies

Since its launch in 2011, the European Semester has been subject to a number of changes affecting both governance aspects and substantive policy decisions. These changes have also concerned the social dimension of the process, whose importance in the Semester agenda has increased over time (Bekker 2015; Costamagna 2013; Zeitlin and Vanhercke 2014), though insufficiently, according to many observers (see for instance, de la Porte and Heins 2015). These developments can be understood as the result of strategic learning dynamics by ‘socially-oriented’ actors, who have gradually improved their understanding of the Semester process and developed more effective strategies, policy instruments and procedures for affecting decisions taken. While a number of studies have investigated the role played by actors such as the European Commission’s Directorate general for Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion but also the EU’s Employment Committee (EMCO), the Social Protection Committee (SPC) and the Council of Ministers (EPSCO formation), a gap exists in the literature on the new European socioeconomic governance: the role of the European social partners in the Semester is underexplored. Available information on this issue allows us to identify two periods. While between 2011 and 2013 European social partners’ involvement into the ES was extremely low, since 2014 an increasing attention to this issue has been paid by EU institutions and the European social partners themselves. A number of mechanisms potentially leading to more regular and timely consultations have been developed. The attempt to relaunch the European Social Dialogue and to link it more closely to the procedures of the Semester represents one of the most interesting recent developments which is likely to affect the features of social partners’ participation in EU governance. Against this institutional backdrop, this paper - which covers the period between 2011 and 2015- investigates the process and the institutional and informal mechanisms through which the European social partners are involved in the Semester and their evolution over time. The paper identifies the key mechanisms and ‘scope conditions’ for involvement and it discusses: a) the interests and the strategic goals behind institutional actors’ (changing) attitudes towards social partners’ involvement; b) the links (and the mutual influence) between the role of the social partners in the Semester and their participation in the more traditional European Social Dialogue; and c) European social partners’ views regarding the involvement process and the strategic and organisational initiatives they have implemented in order to make it more effective. By addressing these aspects through process-tracing, the ambition of this paper is to draw more general conclusions on the institutional and discursive evolution of the EU model of social partnership in the framework of the EU’s new socioeconomic governance. Evidence is gathered through desk research (analysis of the scientific literature and relevant policy documents) and a number of semi-structured interviews with representatives of European institutions, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and BusinessEurope alike. These interviews have been particularly useful to understand actors’ perceptions on the involvement process and its outcomes.