An ongoing disagreement between researchers of EU decision-making processes is about who primarily drives the development – the Commission or the member states. The present article addresses this issue within the context of EU employment policy, a cornerstone in Social Europe. Research has often pointed to a gradually weakening and subordination of these policies to economic policies. However, recent in-depth studies have found a progressive ‘socialization’ taking place in the European Semester. In this article, it is argued that Commission entrepreneurship has been relatively successful and that the Commission stands out as the most important actor in a partial comeback of EU employment policy, which has taken place since the 2010s.

欧盟决策过程研究人员之间的持续分歧在于，谁是推动发展的主要力量-委员会还是成员国。本文在欧盟就业政策（社会欧洲的基石）的背景下解决了这个问题。研究经常指出这些政策逐渐弱化和服从于经济政策。但是，最近的深入研究发现，欧洲学期正在逐步进行“社会化”。在本文中，有人认为委员会的企业家精神相对成功，并且在自2010年代以来实施的部分欧盟就业政策卷土重来中，委员会是最重要的角色。