Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ENLIGHTEN (European Legitimacy in Governing through Hard Times: the role of European Networks)
Reporting period: 2016-04-01 to 2018-03-31
ENLIGHTEN distinguishes between Europe's ‘fast-burning’ and ‘slow-burning’ crises and how EU authorities and social actors have made sense of change, as well as the appropriate forms of governance to deal with crises. The distinction between fast- and slow-burning crises is straightforward. Fast-burning crises are moments and events characterised by alarm and an urgent demand for political action. Fast-burning crises throw European institutions and their functions into sharp relief, bringing to the fore political, social and economic interests to fight over how immediate problems should be addressed. Issues such as unemployment spikes, bank collapses, and drastic austerity cuts are examples. Social actors’ experience of fast-burning crises often increases frustrations with the EU’s governance architecture, and raises questions about the appropriateness of reforms from politicians. Slow-burning crises differ in extending beyond normal political and business cycles. These crises are more ‘normal’ in how they are considered by the public, with expectations about life chances changing, including the role of the European Union as a project that can help these chances be realised. Issues here include financial sustainability, health and housing, and the political and socio-economic consequences of regional employment trends and demographic change. On issues that are less politically visible, the key point of contestation is over what constitutes appropriate expert knowledge on what is really a problem to be addressed.
Following this separation of fast- and slow-burning crises, the ENLIGHTEN project mapped how European institutions and expert networks handle crises, differentiated key policy players, and provided proposals for policy problems.
Research in ENLIGHTEN has been important for European society because the framework and subsequent research focus attention not only on how European authorities have dealt with crises, but also the experience of European citizens. Identifying how authorities diagnose and treat crisis issues, and how European citizens experience them, is important to locate where communication can improve between the two, which can then support the legitimacy of European integration efforts.
ENLIGHTEN’s policy recommendations can be found on our website and in our Findings and Recommendations report. Key policy recommendations include:
Greater Legitimacy for the European Semester - strengthening the European Semester process through increased politicisation, by allowing a greater voice to social partners.
Boosting Financial Sustainability - placing a strong focus on “financial sustainability” in Europe, which requires combatting tax avoidance, questioning macroeconomic indicators, and integrating with international policy networks.
Maintaining Health and Social Housing – acknowledging that publicly funded health and housing systems require more fiscal space to reduce social and political frustrations. Not addressing these issues provides political room for populist anti-EU parties.
Addressing Migratory Employment and Family Formation Issues - active labour market policies are not hitting their intended targets and migrants are often not being served. European authorities need to discuss more than skills and growth to address Europe’s significant demographic challenges.
Beyond the academic state of the art, we have been positively surprised by how quickly the language of “fast- and slow-burning crises” was adopted in our discussions with members of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and external stakeholders. On societal impact, our original research and range of policy recommendations provided a strong contribution to the European policy debate, offering new findings to stimulate debate on important issues and long-term trends.