The Polysemy of Skills: Exploring Country‐Specific Approaches in the Knowledge Economy

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how the concept of “skills” operates as a malleable governance instrument in EU policy, allowing for coordination despite diverse national priorities. Analyzing National Implementation Plans (NIPs) of the Osnabrück Declaration, we examine how Germany, France, Sweden, and Spain interpret and operationalize skill formation through nationally specific lenses. Despite being a least‐likely case for ambiguity, the NIPs reveal strategic variation: Germany links skills to structural transformation, France to capacitation for growth, Sweden to the integration of disadvantaged groups, and Spain to tackling youth unemployment. These findings show how the EU's use of conceptually ambiguous frameworks enables soft policy coordination without requiring uniform implementation. Polysemy thus emerges not as a weakness but as a functional mechanism that allows Member States to align with EU priorities while preserving domestic institutional logics. The paper contributes to scholarship on EU governance, policy discourse, and the political economy of skills.