Neoliberal Conversion of the European Social Model

This article scrutinizes the impact of the EMU’s revised fiscal surveillance regime on national welfare state models in reference to Authoritarian Neoliberalism (Bruff 2013). In the wake of sovereign debt crisis, new procedural rules, introduced by ‘Six-Pack’ (2011) and ‘Fiscal Compact’ (2013/2014), are designed for stricter oversight of public finances as well as macro-economic and structural reform plans (cf. Laffan/Schlosser 2016). The author states that with the new fiscal and macro-economic surveillance system neoliberal reforms are triggered in several policy areas, which constitute core national competence (cf. Falkner 2016). Revised procedural competences have shifted the institutional balance between Council and Commission in favour of greater supranational autonomy in addressing macroeconomic imbalances. The increased assertiveness of supranational institutions within the EMU is finally breaking a lance for a fundamental shift in national welfare state models. Albeit the Commission´s autonomy has been upgraded, structural power rests in the hands of creditor states (cf. Seikel 2016). The author sees therein a strategic move within the European multi-level governance of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) aiming to subordinate fiscal and economic policies under the postulates of budgetary discipline on the one hand and neoliberal competition economics on the other hand (cf. Baeten 2014). Particularly social policy measures are mainly considered as determinants of economic productivity in the light of national competitiveness. Thus, social expenditures, health system (i.e. universal coverage, equity, solidarity and appropriate quality of care), pension scheme (i.e. pensionable age) and regulations of the labour market (i.e. wage setting, flexibilization of working hours, unemployment benefits) are inter alia at stake (cf. Hacker 2011; Syrovatka 2016). Furthermore, the Commission calls for policy reforms in these respective areas which clearly contradict with the Europe 2020 goals. The paper conducts an in-depth analysis of reforms implemented in the area of social and labour policies in response to country specific recommendations (CSRs), as reflected in the national reform programs (NRPs) of members of the Eurozone. The document analysis will be supplemented by interviews in Austria with representatives of respective ministries, the Federal Chancellery and Parliamentarians as well as non-governmental experts to get an insight on how national policy-makers respond to supranational provisions, formulated in the CSRs, and if and how they implement them into national legislation.