ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns itself with categorising and analysing the policy outputs of the European Semester – known as Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) – that are concerned with policy areas of the European social dimension. The CSRs are issued on an annual basis and highlight areas of weakness within individual Member States and thereby form the basis of reform. The analysis focuses on the political direction of the CSRs and codes them on a five-point continuum ranging from decommodification to commodification. It reveals that between 2011 and 2018, the vast majority of CSRs can be categorised as either commodifying or partially commodifying. This finding demonstrates that in reality, European Union (EU) employment and social policy within the European Semester ultimately aims to create pure, efficient labour markets that treat human beings as though they are pure commodities, such as goods and services that find their price by the laws of supply and demand.
