Politics of the European Semester: EU Coordination and Domestic Political Institutions

Unipi Team Leader: Pompeo Della Posta, Department of Economics and Management 

Since the financial crisis, European policymakers have shifted their attention from managing the last crisis towards fixing the underlying problems of the euro. As it has become increasingly clear that the single currency often produced divergence rather than convergence across economies, many economists have identified the resulting economic imbalances as the root cause of Europe’s woes. At the heart of the many initiatives designed to address these imbalances sits the European Semester (ES): a cycle of economic and fiscal policy coordination of 6-month ‘semesters’ within the EU. This new process for coordinating policies across the EU has also raised concerns that it could infringe on established democratic practices. Two central research questions are debated: First, can the Semester successfully reduce the imbalances identified as the euro’s underlying problem? Second, does this come at the cost of weakening EU democracy? This project focuses on the implementation of the ES: when do EU member states implement ES recommendations, and why? Our project bridges specialized expertise in Economics and Political Science as well as in-depth knowledge of EU-policymaking and domestic political structures in four diverse member states: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal. We combine the strengths of comparative macro-perspectives with four case studies of how implementation works in different contexts. By analysing national interests, institutions, and economic ideas in four EMU member states, this project offers a comparative political economy of implementing the European Semester.Understanding when, how, and why the Semester is implemented – and when it isn’t – is highly relevant to the future of the euro, and Europe’s global competitiveness. This project seeks to answer these questions by creatively combining quantitative and qualitative methods and various types of data sources. It seeks to stimulate debate among academics, students, and policymakers.

Coordinator: UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA (Canada) 

Other participants:

HERTIE SCHOOL GEMMEINNUTZIGE GMBH (Germany) 
UNIVERSITA DI PISA (Italy) 
UNIVERSIDADE CATOLICA PORTUGUESA (Portugal)
UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN (Netherlands)

Start date: 01-09-2018 

End date: 31-08-2022 

EU Grant: 295.554,31 €

Project website: Eurosem