Social Europe: the impossible project?
Résumé
The development of "Social Europe" has been limited so far. One of its key and determining aspects has often been overlooked though: negative integration is progressing through the increasing reach of EU law in matters which were never delegated to the European Union. Solidarity is affirmed symbolically in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. However, with a tiny budget, the EU cannot but be marginal in the implementation of effective solidarity. More, EU law explicitly shelters "solidarity-based" social programmes from competition law, and thus, from the core objectives of the EU as a market. The political and economic crisis sparked off in stages from 2008 obliges European and national elites to go further into new steps of integration, as is seen with the implementation of new stability mechanisms, which are funded from the national budgets. Yet, the cultural-political bases for further integration are absent, because the European Union was never meant from the start to be a really political Union.
Domaines
Sociologie
Loading...