Balancing EU social and economic governance through performance management

Abstract

This article studies how the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) is reconfiguring social and economic policy-making in the European Union (EU). The MIP was meant to tackle competitiveness-based imbalances but today addresses a broader range of social concerns. Scholars agree this fits in a trend of depoliticizing governance through tools of performance management. But they disagree whether this marks the ‘socialisation’ or ‘neoliberalization’ of governance. We contribute to this debate by drawing attention to the politics of performance management in the context of neoliberal European integration. We argue performance management has been driven by two tensions: i) macroeconomic divergence and intergovernmental dissensus and ii) EU institutions’ contradictory technical responsibilities and political ambitions. We conclude that the expansion of social indicators in the MIP has undermined the coherence of ‘neoliberal’ regulation. However, its connection with a project of the European Commission’s empowerment means it is unlikely to improve prospects for greater social protection.