21 Pages Posted: 12 Feb 2013

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 11, 2013

Abstract

Constitutions usually don't discriminate among different political ideologies. While constitutions of nation-states impose certain limits on legislative politics, primarily through the protection of constitutional rights, it can hardly be argued that, on balance, they privilege one or another political ideology. The EU economic constitution is, in this respect, different. It systematically biases EU policy making in a neo-liberal direction. Historically speaking, this was not the intent of the EU founding fathers. The original constitutional settlement of embedded liberalism was significantly redefined in the next major revisions of the Rome Treaty.

The neo-liberal foundations of the single market and the EMU have imposed real and significant institutional constraints for progressive policy making. However, the role of the European Left was crucial in this alteration of the EU constitutional order. Despite the strong neoliberal consensus among the key political actors of that time, such a change would have not be possible without the Left' retreat towards centre-leftism, particularly in France. Furthermore, while constrains of the EU economic constitution are significant, we should avoid the naturalization of the EU, depicting it as an automatic upshot of a wholly impersonal logic (Hay, Wincott, 2012, 132). The European Left, while in power, failed to leave its distinct imprint on the EU economic constitution. The Left policy agenda remained firmly embedded in the logic of the nation state.

The euro crisis pushed these developments even further and, for the first time in the EU history, explicitly challenged the constitutional balance of the EU legal order. The new Austerity Union, a project in the making, profoundly altered this constitutional balance. The new politics of austerity is both politically and economically flawed. It threatens the very foundations of European integration. The euro crisis thus represents both a challenge and opportunity for the Left to offer an alternative response to the biggest EU crisis since its inception. But in order to succeed, the European Left must first reform itself. The PES Manifesto is a promising sign in that direction.