EU economic governance in member states: Policies and practices from the perspective of gender and democracy

EU economic governance has pushed member states to budget discipline and welfare state restructuring and transferred power from member states to the EU. Gender equality and feminist knowledge have been neglected in these processes. Focusing on its key tool, the European Semester, the project based in Tampere University studies how EU economic governance has impacted gender equality and democracy in Finland, Austria and Ireland in the 2010s and 2020s. Based on documents, interviews and observations, the project analyses EU's policy recommendations from a gender perspective, and assesses how these recommendations have been drafted and implemented and whose voice is heard in this process. It also asks how policy-making practices influence policy content and enable or hinder progressive change. By comparing three countries, the project helps to understand the national-level impacts of EU economic governance and to integrate gender perspective in its processes and make them more democratic.