Abstract
This paper focuses on the complexity of socio-economic governance in the European Union. We define socio-economic governance as the process of governing societies in a situation where no single actor can claim absolute dominance thus socio-economic governance is the outcome of the interaction between European Union institutions (European Union decision-makers) and member states (national policy-makers). Since the onset of the global financial crisis and the euro crisis a decade ago, social issues have become substantially prominent in EU governance and policy debate. Furthermore, the Covid-19 crisis brought again social issues to the fore. There is no dedicated social governance framework in the European Union but there are several mechanisms (strategies, initiatives and regulations) through which social governance is practiced. At the same time, the framework for European economic governance has substantially been strengthened as a consequence of the global financial crisis and the euro crisis and can be characterised by a matured but incomplete framework. On the one hand, this paper aims to collect and investigate all governance tools related to economic and social issues in the European Union, and on the other hand, this research examines the impacts of those governance tools on member states.
Highlights
The European integration has survived various crises since its inception: the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the oil crises, the crisis of the European exchange rate mechanism in 1992–1993, and most recently, the European Union was able to weather the dramatic impacts of the global financial crisis of 2 008 and 2009 and avoided disintegration during the euro crisis
This paper focuses on the complexity of socio-economic governance in the European Union
This paper aims to collect and investigate all governance tools related to economic and social issues in the European Union, and on the other hand, this research examines the impacts of those governance tools on member states
Summary
The European integration has survived various crises since its inception: the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the oil crises, the crisis of the European exchange rate mechanism in 1992–1993, and most recently, the European Union was able to weather the dramatic impacts of the global financial crisis of 2 008 and 2009 and avoided disintegration during the euro crisis. Jones et al (2015) offer another explanation why European decision-makers postpone the radical completion of the governance framework of the European Union Their approach, the so-called failing forward, merges two integration theories, the intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism, and claims that intergovernmental bargaining leads to incompleteness because member states are having diverse preferences and always opting for the lowest common denominator solutions. The global financial crisis (and the euro crisis) and the coronavirus crisis provide breakpoints in the evolution of both economic governance and social policy governance in the European Union. The chapter reviews the literature, we build on three strands of academic discourse: we define governance related to the European integration in a nutshell, we determine economic governance and we turn to the governance issues of social policy in the European Union.
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