1. Learning from the national usages of Europe
RECWOWE Final Conference
Tackling the crisis: is ‘Europe 2020’ enough?
Brussels, 16 June 2011
Learning from the national usages of Europe
Sophie Jacquot
Centre d’études européennes at Sciences Po

2. WP04. The Europeanization of employment-friendly welfare states
Task coordinators: Paolo R. Graziano, Sophie Jacquot, Bruno Palier
Edited volume in the RECWOWE Series: Graziano P., Jacquot S., Palier B. (eds), The EU and the Domestic Politics of Welfare State Reforms: Europa Europae, Palgrave, 2011
Special issue of the European Journal of Social Security: Graziano P., Jacquot S., Palier B. (eds), “Letting Europe In. The Domestic Usages of Europe in Reconciliation Policies”, March 2011, vol. 13, n°1

3. Outline Presentation of the research project
(Research questions and perspective, case studies, main findings)
The EU and its role in national social reforms - what have we learnt
> A double instrumentalization
EU level: instrumentalization of social policies to meet economic objectives
National level: instrumentalization of the EU and its resources by national actors
EU level: negative impact on gender equality and quality of jobs
National level: EU resources: useful but not neutral, design and content of these resources is fundamental

4. Research questions and perspective
Can Europe impose welfare reforms? > Is Europe useful in national welfare reforms?
How does European integration influence national social policies?
Which European resources are used?
Who is using Europe?
Analyzing the interactions between national and European levels: the usages of Europe
Starting from the national level
Role of actors as necessary variable of European integration
Whether, when, where and how has the EU been mobilized by national actors during the reform process?

5. Europa Europae Letting Europe In Czech Republic France Germany Greece
‘Employment-friendly’ policies (pensions, social assistance, employment, anti-discrimination)
Reconciliation (between paid work and private life) policies
Czech Republic
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Sweden
Turkey
United Kingdom
Czech Republic
France
Finland
Hungary
Italy
Portugal
Spain
Turkey

6. Main findings 1. What matters in structuring the usages of Europe
EU membership
Relationship to Europe
Gap between European orientations and national model
2. Different WS, different adaptation to the EU
Scandinavian WS: limited change and usages but importance of showing compliance with EU rules
Anglosaxon WS: limited change and neglect, EU as a target rather than source of influence (uploading to avoid mismatch)
Continental WS: shaping the EU policy agenda and using EU to pursue domestically-shaped policy agendas (uploading to promote national model)
Southern European WS: significant change in the 90s (EMU, elite and public opinion support), usage of Europe to avoid blame linked to unpopular reforms
Central/Eastern European WS: significant change (significant ‘mismatch’), Europe as a legitimating reference
Candidate countries WS: significant change, usage of Europe to frame and legitimate national reforms

7. The EU and its role in national social reforms - What have we learnt?
Content: The evolution of EU resources across time
Focus on reconcilation between paid work and private life:
extension of the range of policy domains (gender equality, equal treatment at work, parental leave, childcare, working time, family care, work organization)
diversification of policy instruments (binding and non-binding legal instruments, financial instruments, coordination and cognitive instruments)
- policy goals:
1970s-1980s: reconciliation as a consequence of economic integration
1990s: reconciliation as a means of promoting right to equal treatment and opportunities
2000s: reconciliation as a means of promoting employment, activation and economic growth
Mapping of change with regard to policy goals, policy domains and policy instruments
Question is to understand whether and how the EU has contributed to changing national (reconciliation) regimes: usages = analysing the way EU resources are used at the national level requires first to analyze what kind of resources the EU can provide national actors with.
3 main sequences:
reconciliation issues emerged through a spill over interpretation of equal treatment
Then acquired greater autonomy, became an equal opportunity policy, developping various instruments around the objectives of improving the work/family balance and the division of labour between women and men
Finally, field converted into an economic employment policy aimed at modernising welfare systems and guaranteeingbudgetary sustainability through increases in fertility rates and most importantly female employment rates at the expense of the initial gender equality goal.

8. 2. Process:
The EU has contributed to change national WS… not by imposing its views, but by providing resources which national actors could (or not) seize to help them advance their own interest and agenda
The EU is mainly a reform initiator or reform supporter of domestic WS reforms (role of cognitive and coordination resources)

9. A double instrumentalization
EU level: intrumentalization of social policies to meet economic objectives
From reduction of inequalities and social justice to economic competitiveness: instruments to fight demographic decline, social exclusion, social systems budgetary deficits, inefficient use of human resources, etc.
ex. reconciliation policies and women employment rates (see also Knijn and Smit, Jenson, Lewis)

10. 2. National level: instrumentalization of EU resources by national actors
EU influential (esp. in “soft” domains) if useful for national actors: set of opportunities, room for manœuvre
4 main types of usages:
Legitimating usage: EU as a means to legitimize national reforms
Cognitive usage: EU model as a substantive guideline for framing national reforms
Positive strategic usage: EU instruments used by national actors to pursue own political agenda
Negative usage: EU as a negative reference - misfit and euroscepticism

11. The importance of new EU social resources
European resources need to be useful to domestic actors to be influential.
However, this does not mean that these resources are neutral.
EU policies orientations have altered the possible meanings and resources that national actors may use in the social domain. They have changed the realms of possibility and they frame for a large part the box of tools and ideas in which national actors can draw.
The content and orientations of EU policies is therefore fundamental with regard to the evolution of European social policies > tension between market-supporting and inequality-reducing policies.