European influences on member states’ employment policies? The impact of the European Employment Strategy on German labour market policies

The paper analyses the European Employment Strategy's impact on German policies. The Luxembourg Process contains concrete, quantitative objectives as well as relatively heterogeneous suggestions that allow rather antithetic national policies. Nevertheless, it marks a specific European path, emphasizing state-led activation strategies. Applying clear and verifiable criteria, we analyse the impact of the guidelines, the quantified objectives and the recommendations on German employment policies and find that they selectively influenced German policies, normally catalysing existing policies ('intensifier effects'), but sometimes also inducing a policy change ('steering effects'). The impact varies depending on the concreteness of the guidelines and the party composition of the government.