Source: http://www.eiop.or.at/eiop/index.php/eiop/article/view/2007_006a/62
Timestamp: 2014-10-01 16:15:26
Document Index: 749311182

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 128', 'Art. 119', 'Art. 141', 'Art. 13', 'Art. 99', 'Art. 125', 'Art. 249', 'Art. 128', 'Art. 125', 'Art. 128', 'Art. 128', 'Art. 99', 'Art. 128', 'Art. 128', 'Art. 128', 'Art. 99', 'Art. 99', 'Art. 128']

Equal Opportunities between Men and Women and Gender Mainstreaming under the European Employment Strategy (EES) and the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) – A New Policy Approach to Combat Gender Discrimination? | Braams | European Integration online Papers (EIoP)
Vol. 11 (2007) >	Braams
EIoP: Text 2007-006: Full Text Equal Opportunities between Men and Women
and Gender Mainstreaming under the European Employment Strategy (EES) and the
Open Method of Coordination (OMC) - A New Policy Approach to Combat Gender
Discrimination? Beate Braams European Integration online Papers (EIoP) Vol.
11 (2007) N° 6; http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/2007-006a.htm Date of Publication in European Integration online Papers: 30.12.2007 | Abstract | PDF | --Begin page 2--
Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Equal opportunities between men and women and gender
mainstreaming under the EES and the OMS  characteristics and development
2.1. The characteristics of the European
Employment Strategy (EES) and the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) 
Departure from the Community Method 2.1.1. The coordination process under the
EES pursuant to Art. 128 EC 2.1.2.The Open Method of Coordination (OMC)
2.2. The European evolution of new modes of
governance 2.3. The development of gender policies under the
coordination processes 2.3.1. Equal opportunities between men and
women and Gender Mainstreaming under the European Employment Strategy (EES)
2.3.2. Equal opportunities between men and
women and gender mainstreaming under the social inclusion-OMC 2.4. Summary 3. The strengths and weakness of the coordination
instrument and specific concerns in the area of gender policies 3.1. The strengths of the EES and the OMC 3.1.1. The decentralised and flexible
approach of the EES and OMC 3.1.2. The overcoming of political
resistance on all levels 3.1.3. The potential of widening
participation 3.1.4. Summary 3.2. The weaknesses of the EES and the OMC in the
area of gender policy 3.2.1. Legitimacy concerns of the
coordination instrument  The relationship between legal and non-legal
instruments 3.2.2. Actor participation and the lack of
transparency 3.2.3. The role of rights 3.2.4. The problem of compliance 3.2.5. Lack of clear definitions 3.2.6. Lack of awareness 3.2.7. Summary 4. The race discrimination directive  A hybrid
model of hard law and new governance forms 5. Conclusion References 1. Introduction The concept of equal opportunities between men and women has for a long time been developed by reference to instruments under the so-called community method (Bell, 2002:32).(1) Starting from the principle of equal pay for men and women as already enshrined in Art. 119 (now Art. 141) of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), the concept of non-discrimination between men and women had continuously been --Begin page 3-- expanded by the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).(2) With the introduction of Art. 13 EC by the Treaty of Amsterdam, the European Community (EC) was enabled, although within the limits of powers conferred upon it by the EC treaty, to combat forms of discrimination, against which legal protection was hitherto not available on the Community level, such as discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.(3) But even if the concept of equal opportunities between men and women was
subject to such a continuous expansion under EC law, the question has to be
raised how successful the European law approach had been. In a practical
context, the issue of gender equality is still on the political agenda and the
aim of equal opportunities between men and women far from being achieved
(Masselot, 2007:152). What is wrong with the described approach of the EC? Are
the chosen instruments the wrong ones or is it the subject matter of equality
issues which can only to limited extent be made subject to legal treatment?
Presumably, there is some truth in both issues. The point this paper wants to make is thus to look what contribution the
soft policy tool of coordination could make to the general aim of gender
equality. Therefore the paper looks within its first part at the development of
gender equality issues and the concept of gender mainstreaming under the
European Employment Strategy (EES) and the Open Method of Coordination (OMC).
Whereas the traditional legal approach to gender equality issues is limited to
the field of labour law, i.e. to the regulation of the
employer-employee-relationship(4), the coordination
instrument expands the general aim of gender equality to the areas of labour
market and social policies and thus to areas which are not part of the
Communitys legislative competences (Rubery, 2002:500). The second part of
the paper analyses more generally the strengths and weaknesses of such a soft
policy approach towards gender equality and points especially at the ambiguous
relationship between traditional legal instruments under the Community method
and the coordination instrument. Even though the field of gender equality has
shown that a complementary rather than a supplementary use of New Modes of
Governance is possible, there is nevertheless a certain danger that traditional
legal concepts are undermined. The latter issue is of special concern in view
of emerging, so-called hybrid forms combining hard law and soft policy elements
- an issue the third and last part of the paper will deal with in view of the
Race Equality Directive 2000/43/EC(5) as a further
area of anti-discrimination policy where new modes of governance have been
used. The overall aim of the paper is thus a twofold one: On the one hand, it
aims to stress that an effective approach to gender equality cannot be achieved
with reference to the traditional Community method only, simply because the EC
does not dispose of legislative competences in the crucial fields of labour
market and social policies. On the other hand, it has to be stressed that most
of the expectations and euphoria that accompanied the introduction of the
European Employment Strategy in 1997 and the Open Method of Coordination in
2000 could not be achieved. Since the outcome of these new policy instruments
is difficult to assess, it is all the more important to clarify the legal
boundaries of the instrument and thus to determine the relationship between
hard and soft law policy instruments. 2. Equal opportunities between men and women and gender
Initially introduced in the field of economic policies by the Treaty of Maastricht and enshrined in Art. 99 EC, the coordination instrument gained importance for the field of gender equality policies with the introduction of the second coordination process known as the European Employment Strategy under Art. 125 et seqq. EC by the Treaty of Amsterdam. The 1998 employment guidelines included the strengthening of equal opportunities between men and women as one of its four pillars(6) and added one year the commitment to gender mainstream all policy areas.(7) In 2000 the Lisbon European Council(8) extended the coordination instrument to further social policy areas and referred to it as the Open Method of Coordination without, however, enshrining it in the EC treaty. The so-called social inclusion-OMC is of relevance to the issue of equal opportunities between men and women since women are to larger extent than men faced with the problem and the consequences of social exclusion resulting from unemployment or poverty in general (Rubery et al., 2005:619). --Begin page 4-- In order to understand in what way the instrument of the EES and the OMC
differ from the community method and why these instruments developed, recourse
shall be made to the general functioning and features of the EES and the OMC as
well as on their development before looking at the specific aspect of gender
equality policy in the processes of the EES and the OMC. 2.1. The characteristics of the European Employment
Strategy (EES) and the Open Method of Coordination (OMC)  Departure from
the Community Method The EES as introduced by the Luxembourg European Council in 1997 and
the OMC as developed by the Lisbon European Council in 2000 differ in various
aspects from traditional instruments of EC law, such as the legislative
instruments under Art. 249 EC. The traditional community method has as its characteristics the transfer
of powers from the member states to the EC, the central role of the Commission,
the Council and the Parliament in the decision-making process, the adoption of
binding rules whose application can be reviewed by the European Court of
Justice (ECJ). All these elements differ from modes of international
cooperation and have brought the EC closer to a federal-type system, in other
words to a supranational system characterised by the concept of supremacy or
direct effect.(9) The coordination process, however, has a different institutional setting
and is of a different legal nature. It gives a strong role to the European
Council and the Council; it allows for Community action outside the fields of
European competences, it renounces the legally binding and reviewable character
of traditional community acts by instruments of multilateral surveillance,
benchmarking and peer review. The systematic search for comparison and
knowledge is supposed to cause pressure and willingness among the Member States
to perform best and thereby to comply with the adopted common European
indicators. Apart from these common characteristics, the EES and the OMC differ
simply because the EES has been brought into a clear treaty base and thus a
prescribed structure whereas the OMC varies according to its field of
application. A brief description of the EES process as well as the
social-inclusion OMC shall underline theses differences. 2.1.1. The coordination process under the EES pursuant
to Art. 128 EC The actual process of the EES is, in contrast to the OMC, enshrined in
the EC treaty in Art. 125 et seqq. EC and in particular in Art. 128 EC. The
core instruments of the employment coordination process are the so-called
employment guidelines. On the basis of the conclusions given by the European
Council at the yearly spring summit, the Council adopts the employment
guidelines on proposal from the Commission. The European Parliaments
powers are limited to a consultation right. After the adoption of the
guidelines, Member States shall frame their national labour policies in the
light of the European employment guidelines and shall provide the Council and
the Commission with an annual report under Art. 128 para. 3 EC. Even though
Member States are obliged to participate in the coordination process, there is
no requirement to implement the employment guidelines as it would be the
case under the ECs legislative instruments (Häde 2007:Art. 99
par.5-6). On the basis of the national reports, the Council and the Commission
examine the national policy approaches. If national policies conflict with the
European employment guidelines, the only sanction available under
Art. 128 para. 3 EC is the adoption of legally not binding recommendations to
the Member State in question. The results of the examination process are
summarised in a joint implementation report of the Council and the Commission
under Art. 128 para. 4 EC, and submitted to the European Council as the basis
for the latters conclusions at the yearly spring summit.(10) The EES-process, which had originally been established as a
yearly process, has been changed into a triennial one, which, however, still
provides for a yearly update of the employment guidelines and national reports.
2.1.2.The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) The Lisbon European Council in 2000(11) expanded the use of the coordination instrument to further areas of social policy and referred to it as the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). In contrast to the EES under Art. 128 EC and the economic policy coordination process under Art. 99 EC, the OMC has itself not been incorporated into --Begin page 5-- the EC treaty. According to the Lisbon European Council the OMC has to be understood as an independent political process which aims to support Member States in the development of their own policies and which involves the adoption of European guidelines, indicators and/or benchmarks as well as the establishment of regular monitoring processes to control Member States progress.(12) For the purpose of this paper, the social inclusion-OMC is relevant for
the issue of policy, even though it has to be stressed that the OMC has been
extended continuously to other social policy fields, which can, however, not be
covered in this paper.(13) The social
inclusion-OMC was one of the first OMC-processes that were agreed upon at the
Nice summit meeting in December 2000(14). It aims
to facilitate participation in employment and access by all to resources, goods
and services and thereby to prevent the risk of exclusion. The issue of gender
equality is of relevance within all fields of possible social exclusion and
thereby needs to be mainstreamed in all areas which relate to employment
policy. In a biennial process, the social inclusion-OMC aims to combine common
European objectives, National Action Plans and Community programmes.(15) The common objectives and indicators are,
similar to the EES, set by the Council and Commission. Member States are
required to submit every other year National Actions Plans (NAP), which are
then reviewed and summarised in a joint report of the Council and the
Commission. In contrast to the EES, the social inclusion-OMC does not allow for
the adoption of recommendations to Member States. The review mechanism is
thereby limited to the submission of a joint report by the Commission and the
Council, which reduces the pressure on Member States.(16) 2.2. The European evolution of new modes of
governance The development of coordination processes which make use of non-binding
instruments surprises at first glance and raises the question why the EC as a
supranational legal order has made recourse to instruments of multilateral
surveillance which have been applied by traditional international organisations
(Schäfer, 2005:18), such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD)(17) or the International
Monetary Fund (IMF)(18) for years. On the other hand, the use of soft mechanism is not unknown within the
context of the EC itself. Especially in the field of labour policy as well as
social policy, it can be noted that there has always been a tendency to include
soft policy instruments outside the community method (Kilpatrick, 2006:122)
such as the use of supporting community action programmes developed under the
European Social Fund (ESF)(19), the community
action programmes on equal opportunities for men and women,(20) or the more recent community action programmes to combat
social exclusion adopted for the first time in 2000.(21) Despite this long-standing use of what can be summarised as soft law
instruments within the context of the EC or the existence of similar forms of
cooperation in the practice of international organisations, there is something
special about the coordination instrument which requires a more precise look at
the emergence of the coordination instrument on a European level Scott and
Trubek, 2002:5). The European Monetary Union (EMU) can clearly be considered as one
important starting point for the development of new modes of
governance. The introduction of a common European currency have increased
the interdependence of national economies and thus reduced the Member States
margin for manoeuvre in a number of policy fields outside the ECs
competences (Borrás and Jacobsson, 2004:186). This limitation of Member
States room for manoeuvre caused the need for some form of policy
cooperation to overcome the legal split of competences. Apart from the currency background, the high unemployment rate and especially the low employment rate of women in the majority of European countries, the under-development of the service sector and a number of common European concerns relating to the financing and organisation of social security schemes made it necessary to develop a common and coherent European approach in fields outside the core of the single market. Due to the lack of European competences and the reluctance of political leaders to agree on a further transfer of competences in areas, such as employment policy, health policy and social policy in general, the second half of the 1990s was marked by a search for institutional alternatives. The coordination processes enshrined in Art. 99 and Art. 128 of the EC treaty are one attempt to satisfy this quest for renewal (Dehousse, 2002:2). --Begin page 6-- The turn towards new modes of governance (Joerges and
Everson, 2005:161, 169) is not a phenomenon which occurred exclusively within
the context of the EU, it is rather part of a general development at all
levels, i.e. the international, the European and the national level. The
increasing complexity of decision-making processes, the European or even
international influence or in other words the phenomenon of globalisation has
shown the need to integrate expertise and/or organisational capacities of
non-governmental actors into the decision-making process on all levels. On an
international level, international organisations as well as Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) or even transnational corporations (Rosenau, 1992:1,
Ruffert, 2004:20-21) have gained significant influence over the years. On
German national level, the changing role of the state and the inclusion of
private actors into public policy arrangements have been on the political
agenda for years (Ruffert, 2004:17-19, Schuppert, 2005:371). The European level
had gone through various stages of regulation, deregulation and re-regulation
expressing the search for the appropriate form of governance(22) even before the actual usage of the term
governance occurred within the context of the EC. The emergence of the coordination instrument thus differs from previous
forms of soft law instruments in the context of the EC and is part of general
debate on the renewal of traditional integration techniques. 2.3. The development of gender policies under the
After having referred to the general development and functioning of the
two coordination processes, a more precise look at gender equally perspective
of the EES and the OMC will follow including the various changes and stages of
this development. The 1993 Delors White Paper(23) , which is
often d