Making and breaking coalitions for a more ‘Social Europe’: The path towards the revision of the posted workers directive

Abstract

The article traces the passage of the legislative amendment that changed the rules of the intra-EU posting of workers, proposed by the Juncker Commission in 2016. Using data gathered from the news media and 11 interviews, it reconstructs the policy-making process, finding that this was shaped by means of intergovernmental interactions between executives of (groups of) member states. A key turning point occurred in August 2017, when the then newly elected French President, Emmanuel Macron, embarked on a highly publicized tour in a select group of eastern European states, with the stated aim of building support for the amending Directive. Eventually, the coalition of Eastern European member states that had initially challenged the Commission’s proposal was dismantled, clearing the way for its adoption. Extra-institutional intergovernmental negotiations propel contested policy initiatives forward by limiting the range of actors involved in the policy process, by relaxing the complex decision-making rules characteristic of the EU, and by providing opportunities to instrumentalize media attention.