Participation through the Lisbon Strategy: Comparing the European Employment Strategy and pensions OMC

The present article aims to shed light on the implementation of the Lisbon strategy with regard to its governance framework and participation – of the social partners – in particular. In order to assess the participation of (European) social partners in this governance framework and its influence on national reforms we will refer to the European Employment Strategy (EES) (defined in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997 and then integrated in the broader Lisbon strategy in 2000) and to the pensions OMC (the process of soft coordination of pension reforms agreed on at the Stockholm Council of 2001).