The European Semester: Vehicle of integration or fragmentation?

From the outset, the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union has had an asymmetrical structure, with supranationalization of monetary policies and coordination of economic policies. The Eurozone crisis highlighted weaknesses in economic governance leading to the creation of the European Semester. The objective of our research was to examine the effectiveness of the European Semester as a coordination tool on the path to greater economic integration. This “research note” begins with a presentation of the context and the theoretical framework. We then present the hypotheses, the method and the preliminary results obtained before briefly introducing our current research perspectives.