Self-Governance through the Committees in the Open Method of Co-ordination: The Cases of Employment and Social Inclusion

This contribution focuses on an element which has been understudied in the OMC and which is a missing link to grasp its influence. If we begin with the observation that an OMC committee is as a closed intergovernmental group of experts, then the research question is: how do the actors in OMC committees socialize and can this be regarded as a form of “self-governance”? The units under examination are Treaty-based committees - the Employment Committee (EMCO) and the Social Protection Committee (SPC) – where the core Members are national civil servants, but also representatives of the European Commission.