Administrative Steering in the EU: DG Reform and Beyond

This project, led by Dr. Johannes Gerken (OvGU), examines shifts and transformations of the European Commission’s administrative steering capacities. It is based on the literature on political steering and previous research on multi-level policy implementation and execution in the European Union. The starting point of the habilitation project marks the introduction of the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG Reform), which was set up in 2020 and has replaced the Structural Reform Support Service (2015-2020).

The new DG Reform aims at providing ‘tailor made’ reform support to all requesting member states. Thus, the DG Reform is closely linked to the EU’s economic governance infrastructure but goes far beyond it in terms of its content and scope. The project combines three specific research perspectives: (a) It examines the concrete impact of the DG Reform and its programmes on the implementation of EU policies in the member states, inter alia with regard to the country specific recommendations of the European Semester; (b) It analyses the intended intervention logic of the DG Reform’s support programmes and the steering mode condensed therein; (c) It assesses the measures against the background of an infrastructural strengthening of the EU’s economic governance framework.