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What can we learn about policy innovation?

Maria Petmesidou and María C. González Menéndez (eds)

in Youth Employment: Style Handbook

This chapter focuses on the institutional structures and processes that facilitate or hinder policy learning and innovation with respect to effective measures for school-to-work (STW) transitions. ... More

This chapter focuses on the institutional structures and processes that facilitate or hinder policy learning and innovation with respect to effective measures for school-to-work (STW) transitions. The salience of youth employment problems in many European countries has brought the need to develop effective measures of STW transitions to the top of the EU agenda. Indeed, it has generated EU initiatives for integrated policies addressing youth at risk and has accelerated mutual learning, policy transfer, and experimentation within and across countries. Experimentation with proactive youth employment measures is facilitated by a mode of policy governance that supports (regional/local) partnerships and networks of public services, professional bodies and education/training providers, employers, youth associations, and other stakeholders. As such, policy entrepreneurs play a significant role in promoting policy learning and transfer.Less

Denmark: from foot dragging to pace setting in European Union social policy

Jon Kvist

in The Europeanisation of social protection

The relationship between national social policy and the EU is a recurrent theme in public debate throughout Europe. These debates are sparked by EU referenda, regardless of their official theme, with ... More

The relationship between national social policy and the EU is a recurrent theme in public debate throughout Europe. These debates are sparked by EU referenda, regardless of their official theme, with Dutch and French polls on the European Constitution as clear examples. Both entailed heated discussions of the impact and implication of the EU enlargement and European integration on national social policy. This chapter discusses the changing Danish government responses to European integration social policy. Over the past twenty years, the nature of the Danish reactions to EU initiatives has changed considerably. When the Commission tried to get Member States to agree on harmonisation through the adoption of legal acts, Denmark was against it, foot dragging. Social policy was and still is seen by the Danish government as an area of competence for the Member States. In 1992, European collaboration changed after the project on a social dimension achieved only a single directive on maternity. Rather than seeking harmonisation through legislation, Member States began to work together in non-binding ways by setting up common goals and guidelines for policies, and forums for discussion and exchange of experience. Danish governments have supported this line of nonbinding European collaboration in social policy. They have endorsed it when it became an official EU policy, and supported the Lisbon Strategy and the open method of coordination (OMC). Denmark is likely to remain one of the pace-setting Member States in discussing social issues and setting the Social Policy Agenda to the extent that the European collaboration on such matters can provide concrete results for EU citizens. Moreover, Denmark will support the continued use of the OMC in meeting these social issues, so that responsibility for social policy starts and ends at the national level.Less

Spain: starting from periphery, becoming centre

Ana Guillén

in The Europeanisation of social protection

The EU means a lot to Spain. For Spain, it means belonging and identifying with an advanced and modern geographical area. Such a feeling is deeply grounded in historical reasons: Spain was and felt ... More

The EU means a lot to Spain. For Spain, it means belonging and identifying with an advanced and modern geographical area. Such a feeling is deeply grounded in historical reasons: Spain was and felt apart from other countries for centuries; hence, it has been an enthusiastic and respectful Member State. This chapter discusses Spain's position on the EU's initiatives. Developments of social policies in Spain are greatly influenced by the EU in public discourses, procedures, and outcomes. Spain thinks that European integration should be enhanced rather than slowed down. However, it is also critical of EU doctrine. Spain believes the EU should take a more assertive stance, although the EU has not able to influence certain policy areas in great depth in Spain.Less

The Czech Republic: tradition compatible with modernisation?1

Martin Potůček

in The Europeanisation of social protection

Compared to other national models, the Czech social policy model is an outcome of historical legacies, decisions made at several times by different actors filtered by street-level implementation of ... More

Compared to other national models, the Czech social policy model is an outcome of historical legacies, decisions made at several times by different actors filtered by street-level implementation of capacities and mirrored by public reflections of its operations and effects. Up to now, it has been able to resist the one-sided, hard-line reforms happening in some other post-communist countries. The Czech Republic's gradual development has been characterised by its functional adaptation to societal, political, and economic changes, which preserved core functions universal to basic social and health services, thus preventing the most vulnerable people from falling into poverty. Even with the impact of the EU, domestic factors and actors have played a decisive role in this development. This chapter discusses the Czech Republic model of social policy. The first section discusses the European and Czech social models, which are fully compatible in terms of history, culture, institutional frameworks, attitudes of the population, and political legitimacy. The chapter then discusses the underlying principles inspiring the national reforms of the country. The final section focuses on the reception and reflection of the country on the EU-related initiatives.Less

European Union Communications Law

Ian Walden

in Telecommunications Law and Regulation

The past thirty years and more has seen an extraordinary level of policy, legal, and regulatory activity in the telecommunications sector within the European Union (EU); with well over 100 ... More

The past thirty years and more has seen an extraordinary level of policy, legal, and regulatory activity in the telecommunications sector within the European Union (EU); with well over 100 different directives, decisions, regulations, recommendations, and resolutions, relating to every aspect of the industry, having been adopted since 1984. Such activity is a clear illustration that market liberalization should not be confused with concepts of market deregulation. While from a UK perspective, initial EU regulatory intervention in the telecommunications sector seldom impinged on the wider public consciousness, largely due to developments already commenced domestically, some Member States experienced significant political fall-out from Commission initiatives in the area, such as public sector industrial action. Less

Article 171 TFEU

Dimitry Kochenov

in The EU Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights: A Commentary

Article 155 EC In order to achieve the objectives referred to in Article 170, the Union.