ECONOMIC POLICY CO-ORDINATION AND POLICY REGIMES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

In this article, it is argued that coordination of economic policies in the European Union has not led to a weakening of the role of the nation states in shaping their own economic policies. Rather, what can be witnessed is the prevalence of national policy goals through the discretionary implementation of the common rules at the expense of the simpler approach of minimal harmonisation. To support this argument, the author looks at the process of policy coordination in three major areas of the EU: Single Market, Economic and Monetary Union and Social Policies