An Introduction: “Macroeconomic Policy Coordination and Domestic Politics: Policy Coordination in the EU from the European Semester to the Covid‐19 Crisis”*

Abstract

The Next Generation EU (NGEU) and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) encompassed the European Semester. To understand how and why this happened we apply different theoretical approaches so as to emphasize different aspects of this process. The contributions in this collection discuss three main questions: (1) Is the Semester successfully implemented in the domestic arena? (2) Do domestic institutions and stakeholders play a crucial role in the success (or lack thereof) of the Semester? (3) What lessons can we learn from past economic policy coordination for the challenges ahead? In answering these questions, one's lens needs to be focused at both the EU and the domestic levels. Various factors play a role: solidarity, mutual understanding, relations between the ‘South’ and the ‘North’, questions about democracy, the rule of law, the interaction between economic and social issues, and even the need to address the climate crisis (the Green Deal).

From Bad to Worse: The Continuous Dilemma Facing Parliaments in European Economic and Fiscal Governance

“…The more difficult the negotiations between the Commission and the national government, the more carefully they are kept out of the public eye, which makes it difficult for the national parliaments to hold their own governments accountable. If the system really 'worked'in the sense of the Commission providing de facto binding guidance on national budgetary policies that the member states would followit would significantly infringe parliamentary powers at the national level; yet the European Semester recommendations have a weak level of implementation (Verdun and D'Erman 2022). This is explained as a problem of a lack of ownership of the EU recommendations by the member states (see Leino-Sandberg and Losada Fraga 2020).…”

Building ‘Next Generation’ after the pandemic: The implementation and implications of the EU Covid Recovery Plan

“…Whereas economic adjustment programs from the time of the eurozone crisis followed a top‐down approach and entailed elements of conditionality and coercion, the insufficient implementation of the country‐specific recommendations in the context of the European Semester usually originates from a lack of national ownership (cf. D'Erman & Verdun, 2022). NGEU might thus pave the way for a new mode of EU policy‐making.…”

Policy Learning and European Integration

“…In 2020–21, the Member States correctly supported income maintenance first and then co‐ordinated at the EU level Next Generation (Schramm et al, 2022) – blending elements of demand stimulus via financial measures with macro‐economic policy co‐ordination and measures to re‐configure the supply (Fabbrini, 2022; on macro‐economic policy see D'Erman and Verdun, 2022). Analogies did not seem to fool the EU this time.…”