Is the open method of coordination a new mode of governance?

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, Uni, course: New Modes of Governance in the EU, language: English, abstract: The open method of coordination (OMC) is a governance process that brings together a variety of actors (including non-state) for the exchange of best practice and for the establishment of legally nonbinding targets and benchmarks. Class discussion centred on the question of whether the OMC can be considered a new mode of governance (NMG). Here, I begin by outlining the OMC policy cycle: its purpose, its actors and their preferences, and its processes. Drawing on this depiction, I conclude with a discussion of whether the OMC can be considered a new mode of governance by identifying the features of new modes of governance that the open method of coordination incorporates. The open method of coordination draws its inspiration from European Council meetins in Luxembourg, Cardiff and Cologne, which set up supply-sided policy initiatives for the implementation of employment guidelines (Luxembourg), product, service, labour and capital markets and long-term public finances (Cardiff) and macroeconomic dialogue (Cologne European Employment Pact). The Lisbon European Council (2000) first acknowledged the OMC as a mode of governance. Here, the OMC was also identified as the method to be applied to a variety of policy areas in order to reach the EU s 10-year goal of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of both sustainable economic growth and social cohesion (the so-called Lisbon Strategy ).