La constitution économique européenne en processus et en procès

Christian Joerges

Revue internationale de droit économique, 2006, vol. t. XX, 3, issue 3, 245-284

Abstract: 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 ordoliberal account ? The European policy has a twofold structure : at supranational level, it is committed to economic rationality and undistorted competition. Redistributive (social) policies could ? and should ? be left to the members States. This edifice was refined in the 1970s and 80s. Monetary Union and the Stability Pact completed it. The German Constitutional Court?s Maastricht judgement 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 ordoliberal 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 commitment to a ?social market economy? in the Constitutional treaty nor the new ?social rights? provides a conceptually sufficient and politically credible basis for this end.

Keywords: legitimacy; open coordination; economic law; stability pact; welfare state; European convention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=RIDE_203_0245 (application/pdf)
http://www.cairn.info/revue-internationale-de-droi ... -2006-3-page-245.htm (text/html)
free

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cai:riddbu:ride_203_0245

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Revue internationale de droit économique from De Boeck Université
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jean-Baptiste de Vathaire ().