The Politics of the Lisbon Agenda. Governance Architectures And Domestic Usages Of Europe

In the year 2000, in Lisbon, the European Union launched an agenda for growth, jobs, sustainability and competiveness with a ten-year target. In 2010, the agenda was re-launched with different specific objectives but with the same final goals. Why do the European Union leaders engage with these ten-year plans? What exactly do they commit to when they do so? Do they learn from the results, or is this a rhetorical exercise that complex organizations need to raise attention to certain issues?

This volume is a systematic study of the Lisbon agenda of the European Union, now called Europe 2020. It explains the rise of the Lisbon agenda as governance architectures and examines its components across time and sectors.

Contents:

1. The Politics of Governance Architectures: Creation, Change and Effects of the EU Lisbon Strategy Susana Borrás and Claudio M. Radaelli

2. Principal–Agent Theory and the Open Method of Co-ordination: The Case of the European Employment Strategy Caroline de la Porte

3. From Harmonization to Co-ordination? EU Law in the Lisbon Governance Architecture Stijn Smismans

4. The Lisbon Strategy’s Empowerment of Core Executives: Centralizing and Politicizing EU National Co-ordination Susana Borrás and B. Guy Peters

5. The Europeanization of Flexicurity: The Lisbon Strategy’s Impact on Employment Policies in Italy and Poland Anna Gwiazda

6. The Lisbon Strategy and the Politicization of EU Policy-Making: The Case of the Services Directive Jeff Loder

7. From Bologna to Lisbon: The Political Uses of the Lisbon ‘Script’ in European Higher Education Policy Giliberto Capano and Simona Piatton