EIRP Proceedings, Vol 8 (2013)

Abstract

In the light of the debate on the future of the European Union a new topic has started. This topic is represented by Europeanization process and its profound impact upon the public policy of the member states. In order to understand it, since 1990s, the EU has included “new modes of governance” in its arsenal of policy-making instruments, among others the open method of coordination. The open method of coordination is one of the instruments that attract a particular attention of scholars, being described as “primus inter pares”.

The open method of coordination is a cross-border mechanism that aims to create a coherent social practice between the European Union member states. In this paper the author addresses the following query: in what extent uses Romania this mechanism for increasing coherence between its social practice and European ones? For answering have been drawn the subsequent objectives:  (1) describing the instrument and the operational process of the open method of coordination, stressing the comparative perspective between community method and open method of coordination; (2) researching on historical development and main features of this tool; (3) exploring Romania’s efforts for using the open method of coordination in social policies.

From a methodological standpoint, the paper relies on comprehensive and systematic search of the literature and document analysis (among others Annual Reports, authorities’ data, resume, obtained by using free accession to information) and strategic documents.