Rethinking E(M)U Governance from the Perspective of Social Investment

Abstract

Since its inception in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome, the core idea behind European integration was based on the political promise of achieving both economic prosperity and social progress in upward convergence in an ‘ever closer union’ of the peoples of Europe. In defining the European project to this end, the Lisbon Treaty explicitly commits the European Union (EU) to work towards a highly competitive ‘social market economy’, combining full employment with high levels of social protection and cohesion, gender equality and inter-generational solidarity, across all of its current 28 Member States (TFEU 2009: art. 3). The fallout of the Eurozone crisis unveils a highly tragic infringement on the EU’s ‘double commitment’ of economic prosperity and social solidarity progressing in tandem across and within EU member states.