Open method of co-ordination (OMC), March 2005

This In Focus highlights information sources which illustrate, describe and analyse the concept of EU policy making known as the 'open method of co-ordination' (OMC) - a method of non-binding policy co-ordination or convergence between EU Member States. OMC is seen as an 'alternative' to the harmonisation of policies by the adoption of 'Community method' legislation.

A recent article describes OMC as follows: 'There is a desire to do something at European level, but harmonisation is considered both politically unacceptable and unnecessary; the process is one of convergence of national policies towards common objectives following common guidelines, rather than the establishment of a common policy; and the emphasis is more on policy learning than on legal enforcement' (Extract from: Alternative regulations or complementary methods? Evolving options in European governance (EIPASCOPE, No.1, 2003, p2-11)).

'Co-ordination' of policy as an objective and/or mechanism is highlighted in a number of places in the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, 2004 (not yet in force). It is referred to as regards Economic and employment policies (I-15); Economic policies (III-177f); Employment policies (I-15.2; III-203, 204, 208); Freedom, security and justice (III-257); Industry (III-279.2); Concerted practices effecting trade (III-161.1); Social policy (III-210.2; III-213); Public health (III-278.2); Research and technological development (III-250); Trans-European networks (III-247.2).

The OMC term was first explicitly used in an EU context in the European Council Presidency Conclusions adopted at Lisbon in March 2000 under the section dealing with 'Employment, Economic Reform and Social Cohesion in the Member States'. It was stated that the EU's objective of becoming 'the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world within ten years' would be achieved by adopting a strategy which would be implemented by the introduction of a new open method of co-ordination.

Initially, this aimed at codifying a complex mix of policy processes that had been created in an uncoordinated way throughout the 1990s: Broad Economic Policy Guidelines, 1992- (economic policy co-ordination; Luxembourg Process, 1997- (employment policy co-ordination); Cardiff Process, 1998- (structural reform policy co-ordination) and Cologne Process, 1999- (macroeconomic policy co-ordination).

Under each of these processes Member States submit annual reports which are then peer reviewed with the objective of adopting guidelines at a Community level, which in turn then shapes how national policy will develop. The hope is that peer pressure will lead to Member States adopting best practice and gradual convergence towards agreed goals.

The open method has now been extended to many other areas of policy including the Information Society, education, research, pension reform and immigration policy. The method operates on a basis of peer review, surveillance, benchmarking, best practice and scoreboards.

It is possible to be cynical about OMC as a concept and argue that it has evolved as an in-effective 'lowest common denominator' alternative to legislation. It gives the impression that something is happening, while in practice little of substance is. However, there are commentators and academics who treat the concept with more respect than that and see it as a useful complementary policy making mechanism at the European level, and thus needing awareness on the behalf of European policy watchers.

For example 'The value of the OMC, in our view, lies not simply in its general usefulness, efficiency, and flexibility as an instrument of EU policy-making. Because the OMC encourages convergence of national objectives, performance and policy approaches rather than specific institutions, rules and programmes, this mechanism is particularly well suited to identifying and advancing the common concerns and interests of the Member States while simultaneously respecting their autonomy and diversity. It is neither strictly a supranational nor an intergovernmental method of governance, but one that is genuinely joint and multi-level in its operation. By committing the member states to share information, compare themselves to one another and reassess current policies against their relative performance, the OMC is also proving to be a valuable tool for promoting deliberative problem-solving and cross-national learning across the EU. It is for precisely these reasons, we believe, that the OMC has so rapidly become a virtual template for Community policy-making in complex, domestically sensitive areas where diversity among the member states precludes harmonisation but inaction is politically unacceptable, and where widespread strategic uncertainty recommends mutual learning at the national as well as the European level'.

(Extract from: Constitutionalising the open method of coordination. What should the Convention propose? (CEPS Policy Brief, No.31, March 2003))

Additional and subsequent information sources to those listed in this In Focus can be found by clicking on the link at the bottom of this In Focus.

EU: Legislation and Policy Making

	European Commission: COM (2003)261 final (25.5.03): Strengthening the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy: Streamlining open coordination in the field of social protection
	European Commission: DG Economic Affairs: Activities:
	European Commission: DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities: Social protection in the EU: Pensions
	European Commission: DG Justice, Freedom and Security: Justice and home affairs: Scoreboard
	European Commission: DG Competition: State Aid Scoreboard
	European Commission: SEC (2004)1023 (2.8.04): Annex to the Report from the Commission on Research and technological development activities of the European Union2003 Annual Report, p5
	European Commission: COM(2002) 655 final : Communication: eEurope 2005: Benchmarking Indicators
	European Commission: DG Enterprise and Industry: Policy areas: Enterprise Policy: European performance in competitiveness and innovation (including Enterprise Policy Scoreboard)
	European Commission: DG Taxation and Customs Union: Taxation: Company Tax; Harmful tax competition
	European Commission: DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities: European Employment Strategy: Mutual learning
	European Commission/Council: Joint interim report of the Council and the Commission on the implementation of the detailed work programme on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems in Europe, 2004
	European Commission: DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities: Social incluision: The social inclusion process
	European Commission:: DG Energy: Benchmarking: Gas (and electricity)
	European Union: Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (Official Journal of the European UnionC 310, 16 December 2004)
	Council of the European Union: Council conclusions of 20 October 2003 on open coordination for adequate and sustainable pensions (Official Journal, C260, 29.10.03, p3 )
	Denmark: EU Presidency: Issues for discussion: In preparation of the Council contribution to streamlining of policy processes, 2002
	European Commission: COM, (2004) 304 final (20.4.04): Modernising social protection for the development of high-quality, accessible and sustainable health care and long-term care: support for the national strategies using the open method of coordination

EU: Background

	European Commission: DG Education and Culture: Policy areas: Co-operation on Policy issues: OMC
	European Commission: DG Economic Affairs: Publications: Euro Papers, No.45, July 2002: Co-ordination of economic policies in the EU: a presentation of key features of the main procedures

International Organisation

	International Institute for Labour Studies: Discussion paper, DP/137/2002: The Open Method of Co-ordination:A supranational form of governance?
	OECD: Secretariat General: Directorate General: Peer review: A tool for co-operation and change. An Analysis of an OECD Working Method, 2002

National/regional/local official organisation

	United Kingdom: Department for Work and Pensions: Press Release, 22.2.05: Views sought on best practice sharing with EU on pensions and tackling poverty
	Netherlands' Council for Social Development (Raad voor Maatschappelijke Ontwikkeling, RMO): Recommendation, No.28, May 2004: Europe as social space. Open coordination of social policy in the European Union

Stakeholder organisation

	European Public Health Alliance: EPHA Briefing for members: An introduction to the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), 2004
	Notre Europe : Policy Paper, No.12, 2005: The Lisbon strategy and the open method of co-ordination
	Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies: Report, No.1, 2003: The Open Method of Coordination: A new governance architecture for the European Union?
	Centre for European Policy Studies: CEPS Policy Brief, No.31, March 2003: - Constitutionalising the open method of coordination
	European Institute of Public Administration: EIPASCOPE, No.1, 2003, p2-11: Alternative regulations or complementary methods? Evolving options in European governance
	INBAS/NIZW/European Centre: Peer review in the field of social inclusion policies
	Kangaroo Group: Newsletter, No.32, 2002: Modernising European legislation. Redefining the EU's legislative power

Other

	Economic and Social Research Council: ESRC One Europe or Several? Programme: Working Paper, No.41, 2002: All Benchmarkers Now? Benchmarking and the 'Europeanisation' of Industrial Relations
	European Integration Online Papers (EIOP), Vol.8 (2004), No.13: Beyond the Community Method: Why the Open Method of Co-ordination was introduced to EU policy-making
	European Integration Online Papers (EIOP), Vol.8 (2004), No.5: The European Union benchmarking experience: From euphoria to fatigue?
	Michael Wiseman: The European Union's 'Open Method of Coordination' and Social Policy in the United States: Are There Connections? Opportunities?, 2003
	European Political Economy Review, Vol.1, No.2, Autumn 2003: The Political Economy of Social Europe: The case of inclusion policies
	European Integration Online Papers (EIOP), Vol.6 (2002), No.18: A new concept of deepening European integration? The European Research Area and the emerging role of policy co-ordination in a multi-level governance system
	European Policy Institutes Network, 2002: Economic Policy Co-ordination and Policy Regimes In the European Union
	Economic and Social Research Council: ESRC One Europe or Several? Programme: Briefing, No.3, 2001: Benchmarking and the 'Europeanisation' of social and employment policy
	European Political Economy Review, Vol.1, No.2, Autumn 2003: Is Europe going far enough? Reflections on the Stability and Growth Pact, the Lisbon strategy and the EU's economic governance
	ARENA (Centre for European Studies: University of Oslo): Integration by Deliberation?. On the Role of Committees in the Open Method of Coordination, 2003
	Danish National Institute of Social Research: What is European and social about European social policy? Some remarks on the open methods of coordination (Paper presented at the first ESPAnet annual conferenceCopenhagen, 14-17 November 2003)
	Observatoire social européen: European Trade Union Yearbook, 2001: The soft open method of co-ordination in social protection
	Economic and Social Research Council: ESRC One Europe or Several? Programme: Newsletter, No.7, 2002: The open method of co-ordination
	Observatoire social européen: The OMC intertwined with the debates on Governance, Democracy and Social Europe, 2003 (Research prepared by Caroline de la Porte and Philippe Pochet for the Ministry for Social Affairs and Pensions, Belgium)

Related Publications

Books

Soft law in European Community Law (Hart Publishing, 2004)

Towards the constitutionalization of new forms of governance: A revised institutional framework for the European Employment Strategy (in 'Yearbook of European law, Vol.22, 2003', p353-405) (OUP. 2004)

Journal Articles

Alternative approaches to governance in the EU: EU social policy and the European employment strategy (Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.41, No.1, March 2003, p63-88)

Beyond social regulation? New instruments and/or a new agenda for social policy at Lisbon? (Public Administration, Vol.81, No.3, September 2003, p533-553)

Employment-anchored social policy, gender equality and the open method of policy coordination in the European Union (European Societies, Vol.7, No.1, 2005, p27-52)

Introduction to the symposium on 'New' policy instruments in the European Union (Public Administration, Vol.81, No.3, September 2003, p509-511)

Introduction: EU social (exclusion) policy revisited? (Journal of European Social Policy, Vol.12, No.3, August 2002, p179-194)

Is Europe going far enough? Reflections on the EU's economic governance (Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.11, No.5, October 2004, p909-925)

Is the Open Method of Coordination Appropriate for Organising Activities at European Level in Sensitive Policy Areas? (European Law Journal, Vol.8, No. 1, March 2002, p38)

Legitimately diverse, yet comparable: on synthesizing social inclusion performance in the EU (Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.42, No.5, December 2004, p919-955)

Macroeconomic co-ordination in the euro area: the scope and limits of the open method (Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.11, No.2, April 2004, p231-248)

Managing diversity in a system of multi-level governance: the open method of co-ordination in innovation policy (Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.11, No.2, April 2004, p249-266)

Open co-ordination against poverty: the new EU 'social inclusion process' (Journal of European Social Policy, Vol.12, No.3, August 2002, p227-239)

Open co-ordination as advanced liberal government (Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.11, No.2, April 2004, p209-230)

Soft Harmonisation: The Open Method of Coordination in the European Employment Strategy (European Public Law, June 2004, Vol.10, No. 2, p305-332)

Soft regulation and the subtle transformation of states: the case of EU employment policy (Journal of European Social Policy, Vol.14, No.4, November 2004, p355-370)

The European Employment Strategy: Against a Greek benchmark: A critique (European Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol.9, No.2, July 2003, p189-203)

The European employment strategy: Policy integration by the back-door? (Current Politics and Economics of Europe, Vol.11, No.3, 2002, p187-203)

The European Social Model: Coping with the challenges of diversity (Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.40, No.4, November 2002, p645-670)

The OMC - a deliberative-democratic mode of governance? The cases of employment and pensions (Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.11, No.2, April 2004, p267-288(

The open method of co-ordination and new governance patterns in the EU (Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.11, No.2, April 2004, p185-208)

The open method of coordination and policy mainstreaming: the European Employment Strategy and regional conversion programmes in the UK (European Planning Studies, Vol.12, No.1, January 2004, p123-141)

The open method of co-ordination and 'post-regulatory' territorial cohesion policy (European Planning Studies, Vol.12, No.7, October 2004, p1019-1033)

The open method of co-ordination in immigration policy: a tool for prying open Fortress Europe? (Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.11, No.2, April 2004, p289-310)

What can 'benchmarking' offer the open method of co-ordination? (Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.11, No.2, April 2004, p311-328)

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