Europeanization through its instrumentation:Benchmarking, mainstreaming and open method of coordination… Toolbox or Pandora’s nox ?

摘要

Understanding Europeanization through its instrumentation raisesthe issue of the supposed neutrality of policy tools used as soft modes of action.The aim of this article is to assess how this ‘new governance’ tends to guidepolicy-making on a specific path. Indeed, European construction cannot be restrictedto the direct impact of Community law or to the indirect effects of economic integration.A new form of non-constraining co-ordination has been developing sincethe mid-1990s. In order to explain how the cognitive mechanisms of Europeanizationwork, we open the ‘toolboxes’ that allow European institutions to have aneffect on national representations and practices. The use of benchmarking for buildingthe European Research Area, the elaboration of gender equality policy accordingto the principle of mainstreaming, and the open method of co-ordination (OMC) inthe field of pension reforms, illustrate how such policy instruments lead national governmentsto meet the competitiveness requirements of the Lisbon strategy.