MCEL Research Seminar in May

The next MCEL seminar will feature Professor Dr Sacha GARBEN’s presentation entitled: ”balancing ‘the market’ and ‘the social’ in the European Union: critical reflections and proposals for change”.

Sacha Garben is Permanent Professor of EU law at the Legal Studies Department at the College of Europe. Here is an abstract of the presentation:

"The EU currently finds itself stuck between various rocks and hard places. It faces significant pressure to stabilise the Euro-zone but it has met with unprecedented criticism as to the consequences of the choices that have been made to remedy the crisis. The internal market project, from which the EU has traditionally drawn impetus in times of trouble, has steadily been losing force, but a revival of the ‘services discourse’ will only further fuel the criticism of those who consider the current interpretation of the market freedoms an important causes of the EU’s ‘social problem’. The EU is confronted with corrosive criticism over its perceived ‘over-regulation’, but the policies it has enacted in response have been accused of deregulating important areas of public interest. The common theme in all these stalemates is that of increased politicisation of EU law and policy. It seems that, for one reason or another, notice is finally taken of the inherently political nature of EU policies and that decisions concerning the Euro, the internal market and EU regulation can no longer be presented as simply pursuing an objectively 'best' outcome. This may well be an irreversible development, that the EU will have to accommodate if it is to continue to grow and prosper. In all this, the way that the legal and political system, as well as the actors operating within it, balance ‘the market’ and ‘the social’, can be expected to be an important factor for the EU’s continued existence. In that, it is not so much the outcome (i.e. ‘more market’ or ‘more social’) that will be decisive, nor whether this outcome happens to coincide with the majority view, but instead the extent to which the process in which that outcome is achieved is inclusive and representative, democratic and legitimate. In this presentation, these three areas (internal market, economic and monetary policy and EU regulation) will be discussed, focusing on how ‘the market’ and ‘the social’ are being balanced and by whom, whether there is an ‘imbalance’ in the overall outcome, and to what extent that outcome can be legitimised. It will be argued that, at present, all three areas lack the appropriate constitutional democratic safeguards that would be necessary to unlock the blockages and legitimise continued EU action in these areas, and reflections on possible changes and reforms will be invited."

Dr. Elise Muir will act as a discussant during the seminar. ​