The COVID-19 crisis transformed EU economic governance. The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) stepped forward as a protector of national welfare states—leveraging joint debt, fiscal and monetary stimuli and targeted job support measures. While many attribute this shift to changing national interests, a key question remains unanswered: Who developed this agenda, and how did it come to fruition?
This thesis moves beyond explanations of EMU reforms as inter-state conflicts at given points in time. Instead, it explores EMU politics as a dynamic policy space progressively owned and redefined by social policymakers over time. Specifically, I contend that, since the adoption of the euro, the EMU has undergone a gradual, incomplete, yet decisive transformation—which I define as macrosocialisation.
Macrosocialisation entails making EU macroeconomic policies more sensitive to its social implications. This process, I posit, was achieved by layering a European Social Union onto the EMU via the supranationalisation of core welfare functions—insurance, capacitation and redistribution.
Part I traces EU macrosocialisation historically. Chapter 2 examines the evolution of EMU priorities between 1992 and 2019. Chapter 3 compares the distributive profile of EU labour market policies before vs. after the EU Social Pillar by analysing 110 EU measures and 532 European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgements (1999–2023).
Part II explores the Roads to EU macrosocialisation by analysing the political economy underlying the adoption of the SURE job retention scheme (chapter 4), the Minimum Wage Directive (chapter 5), and the National Recovery Plans of France, Germany, Italy and Spain (chapter 6). Chapter 7 evaluates the staying power of this shift.
Drawing on the coding of 344 EU prescriptions and 112 national party positions, 74 elite interviews and a participant account at the European Commission, this analysis reveals how (legal) incorporation, (ideological) instillation, and (political) irradiation provide complementary pathways for macrosocialisation.
Robin Huguenot-Noël is Post-Doctoral research fellow at the University of Milan and researcher at the European University Institute. Prior to joining the EUI, he was trained in economics, political science, and philosophy in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
Robin’s main research interests lie in the development of (welfare) state capacities, the political economy of labour market reforms, and their links with the economic governance of the European Union. Today, he is exploring how different interest coalitions shape welfare recalibrations in France and Germany, with a focus on just transition policies and care services. His research combines macro-level quantitative analyses, case study comparisons, and survey research.
Between 2020 and 2024, Robin has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) in Cologne, Sciences Po in Paris, and the Hertie School in Berlin. He also held lecturer positions at the University of Düsseldorf (Germany), Sciences Po Lille (France), and Pacific University (United States) in the context of a Fulbright scholarship.
His research has featured in various academic outlets, including the Journal of European Public Policy (JEPP), the Journal of European Social Policy (JESP), and Transfer: the European Review of Labour and Research. He is also the co-author of the book Resilient Welfare States in the European Union (2022, Agenda Publishing). His work has further fed into various reports for the the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission, including for the High-Level Group on the Future of Cohesion policy.