Review article
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v13i2.431
The Europeanisation of Employment Policy in the Czech Republic
Anne Schüttpelz
; University of Hamburg
Abstract
Although the Euopean Employment Strategy (EES) has applied to the new Member States only after accession, it had shaped the Czech employment policy already well before that date. Therefore, the question arises, how the EES could gain such influence, despite the fact that the EES represents neither a very strong kind of EU regulation nor was pushed by the European Commission in course of its pre-accession strategy. Europeanisation theory suggests that basically institutional misfit between EU and national regulation as well as certain national conditions may explain the adaptation of national policies to EU norms. However, as the EES represents a very soft type of EU regulation, the cognitive influence on dominant national actors plays an important role for its impact. In the Czech case, the EU has been quite successful in influencing the agenda setting for the employment - the interpretation of labour market problems was shaped by the aims of the EES and led to an activation and streamlining of the employment policy. However, it was less the official employment policy review as part of the pre-accssion strategy than the model function of the EES that was decesive for successful and early adaptation.
Keywords
European Employment Strategy; Czech Republic; adaptation; EU accession
Hrčak ID:
30268
URI
Publication date:
13.6.2006.
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