Mainstreaming the EU’s horizontal agendas: expert or participatory governance?

17 March 2015

Time: 1:00 - 2:00pm
Venue: Francis Bancroft Building, Rm 3.27, Mile End Campus

Speaker: Dr Rachel Minto (Cardiff)

This paper investigates the tools used to as part of the process of "mainstreaming" in the European Union (EU). Whilst references to mainstreaming abound, a handful of mainstreaming agendas have gained sufficient political salience to be constitutionalised in the EU Treaties. These commit the EU to addressing/promoting a number of political agendas horizontally across all policy areas, including “gendering”, “greening” and promoting a social dimension throughout policy-making. This paper explores these mainstreaming agendas in concert, comparing and contrasting the different tools used in a bid to gain a firmer understanding of the concept, practice and future of mainstreaming in the EU.