Lessons about the ‘Harder’ elements of OMC governance for the EU energy Union

ABSTRACT

This paper identifies three ’harder’ – potentially more constraining – features of existing OMCs (employment and social inclusion), explains why they are ‘hardening’, and draws lessons for the Energy Union. The first ‘harder’ element is ‘EU benchmarks and national targets’, where the former signals EU commitment and sets direction over the medium term, while the latter bind member states to develop policy in line with EU strategic priorities. The second harder element is ‘two-level policy dialogue’, referring to two-level administrative coordination – around national reports, EU assessment of member state performance and Country Specific Recommendations. ‘Two-level policy dialogue’ is ‘hardening’, because it is structured around the key EU aims, priorities and benchmarks, but at the same time targeted at each individual member state. The third harder element is ‘policy entrepreneurs’, as such individuals are capable of mobilizing high-level political commitment at the EU and member state levels. We assess that these three elements together contribute to a ‘hardening’ – and thus potential to change policy – of OMC-type governance, which is already taking place in Energy Union. We also note that two other factors – institutional capabilities and financial resources – are crucial in conjunction with Energy Union.

KEYWORDS:

• OMC
• political entrepreneurs
• European employment strategy
• energy Union
• EU benchmarking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Caroline de la Porte is Professor at the Department of International Economics, Government and Business, Copenhagen Business School. Her research focuses on the Europeanization of public policy reform, especially in the area of labour market and social policy. Recent publications include “Agents of institutional change in EU policy: The social investment moment.” Journal of European Public Policy, 25(6) (with David Natali), and “The court of justice of the european union and fixed-term work: Putting a brake on labour market dualization?.” Journal of European Social Policy, 27(3) (with Patrick Emmenegger). She is currently CBS lead of the Nordforsk-financed project, ‘Reimaging Norden in an Evolving World’ (ReNEW) (2018–2023), and leads a WP on Fair labour markets in the EU-Horizon financed project ‘The Future of European Social Citizenship’ (EUSocialcit) (2020–2023).

Sabina Stiller, PhD is a researcher at Amsterdam Institute of Advanced Labour Studies-HSI, University of Amsterdam and a lecturer in Public Administration at Radboud University Nijmegen. She has recently done research on post-crisis public sector employment relations, on reforms in the regulation of flexible and newer employment forms, as well as on how working and non-working individuals differ in their valuation of work and state employment and social security regulation. Previously, at Public Administration and Policy Group, Wageningen University, she taught and published on the role of leadership in climate adaptation policy and food governance.

Notes

1 For employment: 75% of people aged 20–64 to be in work; research and development (R&D): 3% of the EU's GDP to be invested in R&D; poverty and social exclusion: at least 20 million fewer people in – or at risk of – poverty/social exclusion), while in education, there are two key indicators: rates of early school leavers should be below 10% & 40% of people aged 30–34 having completed higher education.

2 EU Commission (n.d.). Clean Energy for all Europeans. Source: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-strategy-and-energy-union/clean-energy-all-europeans

3 EU Commission (n.d.) Governance of the Energy Union. Source: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-strategy-and-energy-union/governance-energy-union

4 The CSRs related to EMU, by contrast, are developed mainly on the basis of technocratic criteria, following the legal basis (Guidi & Guardiancich, 2018).