Socializing the European Semester? Economic governance and social policy coordination in Europe 2020

The European Semester of policy coordination, which is the core of EU’s new institutional architecture for economic and social governance, introduced since the beginning of the Euro crisis, has prompted questions about the nature and dynamics of the EU’s emerging socio-economic governance architecture. In this report, Jonathan Zeitlin and Bart Vanhercke argue that since 2011, there has been a partial but progressive ‘socialization’ of the European Semester. This can be understood not only as the response from i.e. the European Commission to the growing social and political discontent with austerity policies, but also as a product of reflexive learning and creative adaptation on the part of social and employment actors.