Kansallisten eläkestrategioiden muotoutuminen ja Euroopan unionin avoin koordinaatiomenetelmä

Niemela H, Salminen K. Making of national pension strategies and the European Union open method of co-operation. Helsinki: The Social Insurance Institution, Finland, Studies in social security and health 104, 2009. 215 pp. ISBN 978-951-669-811-6 (print), 978-951-669-812-3 (pdf). This study analyses the making of pension strategy reports for the EU Member States Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark as the outcome of the pathway dependencies of their history and institutional legacy, and of the liberal administration or open co-ordination method of the European Union. However, the main emphasis in the study is on historical-institutional analysis of pension policy in the reference countries. The study analyses the strategy of open co-ordination in the European Union and its objectives. An analysis is also made of the joint report of the Commission and the Council assessing the pension strategies of the reference countries, and of which countries the European Union identifies in the report as the best and most problematic, and on what grounds. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the economic and social policy functions of the pension systems, and a comparison is drawn between the joint report and the ideal type of a post-national Schumpeterian workfare State. Historical institutionalism and path dependency are used to show that certain basic structures of the pension systems of the reference countries have persisted, even though some modifications have been made in these systems. All of the reference countries had already in advance made the pension system modifications that were imposed in the pension strategy report as objectives for pension security in the Member States. The reference countries had reformed their pension systems to exhibit a clear shift away from the Keynesian welfare State towards a Schumpeterian workfare State with the emphasis on working capacity. The study indicates that the European Union has exerted little influence over the pension systems of the reference countries, and that the workfare State paradigm provides a better framework than conventional integration theories for appreciating the pension reforms made in these countries. The question relates more to a new regulatory approach in capitalism as a whole than to the European integration process. – Summary pp. 193–198.