The Open Method of Coordination as a Device to Increase Citizen Support for the European Union: A Systems Theory Perspective

The Lisbon Strategy was ushered in by the European Council Meeting in March 2000 in Lisbon aiming to make the European Union ''the most competitive economy in the world and achieving full employment by 2010." 1 This coincided with the introduction of the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) as an instrument of the Lisbon Strategy which was applied to the area of social policy. Following a mid-term review, one of the explicit aims of a revised OMC was to increase citizen involvement in the process in order to raise support for it -- and thereby the EU -- which the EU could use as a leverage to pressure the Member States to undertake reforms. The present research and deliberations focus on Germany and the United Kingdom and attempt to tackle the question of whether the revision strategy has worked by viewing it through a system's theoretical lens, in particular as it applies to the concept of support. The conclusion indicates that the revised OMC strategy has not led to citizen involvement in the process, while the increased levels of support have not materialised in concrete terms, though we cannot completely discount the possibility that the new strategy has had a positive effect on the German citizens' feelings towards the EU.