The ambiguity of social Europe in the open method of co-ordination

The development of the open method of co-ordination from the extraordinary Lisbon European Council in 2000 has been considered by many academic and institutional commentators as a break-through for Social Europe. Yet what kind of breakthrough is it? While many "OMC optimists" have seen its development as providing a new space for social policy outside a restrictive Treaty structure, others have pointed to the integration of the OMC within the Lisbon Strategy as evidencing a new set of economic constraints on the welfare state's development. This paper will argue that there is a deep ambiguity within the OMC's social role; while on the one hand, it can be seen as "colonising"-entering national social institutions ever further into an EU framework dominated by market actors-on the other hand, it can be posited as "reflexive", as encouraging both competing social and economic discourses, and inter-dependent national polities, to reflect upon the objectives of each other.