| Article | What is left of the European Economic Constitution? A Melancholic Eulogy |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joerges Ch. |
| Name of magazine | Legal journal «Law of Ukraine» (English version) |
| Issue | 3 / 2013 |
| Pages | 76 - 103 |
| Annotation | The essay starts from the assumption that the efforts to cure Europe’s democracy deficits will also have to address the social problématique of the Europeanization process. This is a challenge with new dimensions. Europe had started its integrationist path as a mere economic community. In its formative era, the constitutional perspectives of German Ordoliberalism were attractive. In the ordo-liberal account, the European polity has a twofold structure: At supranational level, it is committed to economic rationality and a system of undistorted competition. Redistributive (social) policies could—and should—be left to the Member States. This edifice was refined in the 1970s and 1980s. Monetary union and the stability pact completed it. The German Constitutional Court’s Maastricht judgment endorsed its constitutional validity. However, the new dynamics and the strive for an «ever closer Union» in the Maastricht Treaty has led to a strengthening of European regulatory policies and a broadening of their scope, which were incompatible with the ordo-liberal legacy. The erosion of the economic constitution has not paved the way to a cure for Europe’s social deficit. Neither the open method of co-ordination nor the commitments to a «social market economy» in the Constitutional Treaty nor the new «social rights» provide a conceptually sufficient and politically credible basis for this end. |
| Keywords | legitimacy, open coordination, economic law, stability pact, welfare state, European Convention. |
| References | |
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