The impact of European employment strategy in Greece and Portugal: Europeanization in a world of neglect

By focusing on three key areas of employment policy – public employment services, gender equality policies and flexicurity – in Greece and Portugal, this study provides a model to explore how European Employment Strategy (EES) can influence member states' employment policy. It argues that the main mechanisms of EES-induced change were empowerment of domestic policy entrepreneurs and European Social Fund financial conditionality. Soft power can therefore be wielded in the world of neglect without policy learning, which is considered the main 'soft' Europeanization mechanism.