The open method of co-ordination: Some remarks regarding old-age security within an enlarged European Union



Introduction

During the previous decade political interest focused mainly on the European Monetary Union
(EMU). Now, at the dawn of the new millennium and the upcoming enlargement1 the European
Union (EU) had to define new aims. In March 2000 the European Council of Lisbon started a new
initiation by setting a strategic aim for the Union as a whole: to render Europe the most competi-
tive, economically, and socially cohesive area in a global context.2 Decisions had to be made in
order to meet this ambitious goal and to strengthen the social dimension of Europe. Therefore, the
Lisbon Summit established the ‘open method of co-ordination’ (OMC) for national social policies
among member states as a means of pursuing economic and employment growth coupled with
greater social cohesion.3 The main modification between previous EU policy instruments and the
OMC is its so-called
soft policy approach. Thus, the OMC represents a new type of policy making
and regulation on the EU level: on the one hand, it is
softer than the classical legislative approach,
but on the other hand it implies
more than a simple non-binding recommendation or a political
declaration. However, in view of the EU enlargement it is to be noticed, that so far the candidate
countries are not involved in the OMC process at all. Nevertheless, candidate countries could be-
come relevant actors for the development and relevancy of the OMC especially in the area of old-
age security. In some of these transformation economies radical old-age security reforms were
implemented in the last decade. By the aid of the OMC these reforms could be evaluated and the
experiences be made transparent. If the OMC resumes that the old-age security models of the can-
didate countries happen to be the
best-practice, this circumstance would (indirectly) influence
future reform processes of current EU member states.

The OMC will be implemented in the area of social inclusion, old-age security, health and long-
term care after having been used in the employment area since the late 90’s. This paper describes
the most important developments and main issues raised by the OMC particularly in the area of
old-age security of EU member states as well as of candidate countries. Starting with a brief in-
troduction about European integration and social policy (1.), the paper illustrates
three main
points:
First, the channels at the European level that are influencing decisions for national old-age
security systems (2.).
Second, the process of the OMC as a whole regarding old-age security (3.).
In this part the paper presents the main actors involved (3.1); followed by an overview of their
different approaches (3.2); this part concludes with an examination of the current debate about
social indicators and benchmarks, which is the point at issue right now (3.3).
Third, the paper
describes the crucial role of the candidate countries in the OMC process. (4.).
Finally, the paper
ends with some concluding remarks (5.).

1

The candidate countries for the upcoming enlargement in 2004 are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

2

Cf. European Council (2000: 1).

Cf. European Council (2000: 2).




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