Open Method of Coordination Within EU Education Policy

Abstract

This project analyses the potential for Europeanisation within the Open Method of Cooperation in EU education policy. In the course of the last decade, a European dimension in education policy has been developed. In 2000, the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) was implemented of certain EU policy areas as method to live up the objectives outlined in the Lisbon Strategy. Two years later, the OMC was applied as a mode of governance to education policy, making the potential for intensified cooperation between the EU Member States. The project examines the functioning of the OMC in terms of mode of governance and includes a comparison of new and old Member States with respect to attitudes towards cooperation within the Education policy area. It is argued that the potential for Europeanisation is constituted in the process between the Brussels level and the Member State level. The project conclused that there exists a considerable gap between the two levels, and that a number of obstructing mediating factors in the form of lacks must be dealt with, in order for the potential for Europeanisation to increase.