Policy windows, ambiguity and Commission entrepreneurship: explaining the relaunch of the European Union's economic reform agenda

TY - JOUR

T1 - Policy windows, ambiguity and Commission entrepreneurship

T2 - explaining the relaunch of the European Union's economic reform agenda

AU - Copeland, Paul

AU - James, Scott

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - This article explains the relaunch of the European Union's (EU) economic reform agenda in 2010. After repeated delays during 2009, the European Commission scaled back its initial plan for a revived social dimension and instead proposed a strengthened governance architecture of economic surveillance. Using the multiple streams framework we argue that the new Europe 2020 strategy which emerged is a product of two overlapping policy windows which opened suddenly in the problem stream (the Greek sovereign debt crisis) and politics stream (shifting institutional dynamics). This created a window of opportunity for skilful policy entrepreneurs to couple' the three streams by reframing the existing Lisbon Strategy as the EU's exit strategy from the crisis. The article contributes to understanding policy change under conditions of ambiguity by demonstrating the causal significance of key temporal and ideational dynamics: the timing of policy windows; access to information signals; and the role of policy entrepreneurs.

AB - This article explains the relaunch of the European Union's (EU) economic reform agenda in 2010. After repeated delays during 2009, the European Commission scaled back its initial plan for a revived social dimension and instead proposed a strengthened governance architecture of economic surveillance. Using the multiple streams framework we argue that the new Europe 2020 strategy which emerged is a product of two overlapping policy windows which opened suddenly in the problem stream (the Greek sovereign debt crisis) and politics stream (shifting institutional dynamics). This created a window of opportunity for skilful policy entrepreneurs to couple' the three streams by reframing the existing Lisbon Strategy as the EU's exit strategy from the crisis. The article contributes to understanding policy change under conditions of ambiguity by demonstrating the causal significance of key temporal and ideational dynamics: the timing of policy windows; access to information signals; and the role of policy entrepreneurs.

KW - Europe 2020

KW - European Commission

KW - Lisbon Strategy

KW - policy entrepreneurship

KW - windows of opportunity

KW - LISBON STRATEGY

KW - GOVERNANCE

KW - POLITICS

KW - INSTITUTIONS

KW - CRISIS

KW - TREATY

U2 - 10.1080/13501763.2013.800789

DO - 10.1080/13501763.2013.800789

M3 - Article

SN - 1350-1763

VL - 21

SP - 1

EP - 19

JO - Journal of European Public Policy

JF - Journal of European Public Policy

IS - 1

ER -