EU governance of economic and social policies: Chances and challenges for social Europe

This article aims at establishing to what extent the renewed EU economic and social policy coordination cycles offer opportunities to uphold and further develop the Union’s social objectives.

First, it seeks to examine to what extent the legal frameworks in which macroeconomic and social policies operate may safeguard a balance between macroeconomic and social concerns (part II). Next, it explores the extent to which policy cycles take into account social aims and targets. For this purpose the National Reform Programmes, Stability and Convergence Programmes and the country-specific recommendations, addressed in 2011 and 2012 to the Netherlands and Germany, will be put to the test (part III). The analysis will focus on policy responses to Guideline No 10 of the Integrated Europe 2020 Guidelines. This Guideline was newly introduced in 2010 in order to ensure that employment and macroeconomic policies are compatible with the objective to combat poverty and social exclusion, one of the core objectives of the Union’s social policy. Lastly, the analysis will lead to some concluding remarks (part IV).