Competitive Social Market Economy Research Articles

Does Social Businesses Development Affect Bioenergy Industry Growth under the Pathway of Sustainable Development?

The Treaty of European Union (EU) sets out the EU vision for sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. This led us to ask whether or not social business development stimulates the development of the bioenergy sector in the EU28 countries. Given the increasing rates of energy insecurity, environmental pollution, poverty, and unemployment, countries are switching to alternative energy sources that might promote social business development, climate change, and environmental quality. In this scenario, the bioenergy industry has received the attention of scholars and policymakers alike. The role social business development can play in the growth of the bioenergy industry remains uncertain, therefore, further investigation is necessary. This study, therefore, explores the relationships between the bioenergy industry and social business development indicators related to zero emissions, zero poverty, and zero unemployment for EU28 region countries from 1990 to 2018. Empirical evidence is based on the use of a new economic model, dynamic panel co-integration simulations (Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square, Dynamic Ordinary Least Square, and Pooled Ordinary Least Square). The results reveal a negative relationship between EU28′s bioenergy industry growth and carbon dioxide emissions, vulnerable employment, and unemployment rate, suggesting that bioenergy industry growth helps reduce pollution and unemployment. Likewise, bioenergy industry growth increases food supply, economic growth, and female employment and might be the best alternative to fossil fuels. Necessary policy related to bioenergy industry growth can be formulated, especially in achieving the sustainable development goals for social businesses.

The Never-Ending Quest for the European Fiscal Policy’s Objectives: Stability vs. Convergence or Stability and Convergence?

The aim of this paper is to analyse the permanent struggle to define European fiscal policy objectives, hence to define the corresponding structure of such a policy. To discuss the objectives of fiscal policies in the European context our starting point will be the idea that politics has to define clear objectives, then economic policies, fiscal policies included, should be designed to attain the fixed objectives. In the European context, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)’s main objectives have been restated in 2015: “balanced economic growth and price stability, a competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress” for all member states. Our conclusion, based on these objectives, will be that the EMU needs a fiscal policy as well to cope with asymmetric shocks as to foster real convergence among member states. Therefore, a clearer presentation of the corresponding policies with the expected outcomes on the member state level has to be added. This has to be achieved through an improved communication policy to convince European citizens that the European integration is not just about maintaining peace in Europe but that a real improvement in living conditions can be achieved. (JEL E61, E62, F15, F55)

The public administration in front of current challenges in Greece and Europe

Reforms in EU member states as well in Greek public sector are based upon the Refit system. Main purpose is the “catharsis” of Greek public sector in order to reduce the deficiency of General Government according to the MO’s programs. That caused redundancy, mobility, availability of the public servants. The main purpose is to regulate the state upon principles appropriate to the agreed objectives of Lisbon treaty that must be flexible. This kind of flexicurity is based on a highly competitive social market economy via the precarity system in order to diminish the economic crisis.

The Compatibility of Private Health Insurance Schemes with EU Law: Applying the Health Insurance Exception beyond Substitutive Private Health Insurance

AbstractThe lack of clarity as to the scope of the health insurance exception enshrined in Article 206 of the Solvency II Directive has created uncertainties surrounding the implications for government intervention in the private health insurance market. A contentious interpretation of the health insurance exception, offered by former EU Commissioner Bolkestein, and the approach subsequently taken by the Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union in assessing the compatibility of Member State intervention in private health insurance have led to a divergence in the application of EU law, which further increases uncertainties around the legality of Member State intervention. This article proposes an alternative interpretation of the health insurance exception that draws on a contemporary understanding of private health insurance as a socio-economic institution aimed at achieving a highly competitive social market economy. This alternative interpretation extends the applicability of the health insurance exception from substitutive private health insurance to complementary private health insurance that covers statutory user charges and thus improves the compliance of national health insurance systems in several Member States with EU law and enhances the coherence of EU law.

Towards a European Innovation Principle Endorsed by Better Regulation

Innovation is an essential element of sustainable growth. While the internal market is defined by the objective of a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment (Article 3 (3) TEU) innovation becomes a precondition of a sustainable and green economy. It leads to higher productivity and competitiveness while also bringing social and environmental benefits. By definition, innovation cannot be preordained. It takes place in response to diverse incentives. The policymaker’s task is not to pick winners but to ensure that the entire economy becomes better-suited for innovative outcomes. Regulation matters at all stages of the innovation cycle, from research and development, to diffusion, commercialisation and beyond. Therefore, a toolbox of innovation-enabling legislation can help to unleash the innovative potential of European companies and individuals. The author is of the opinion that the innovation principle should - in a fair balance with other treaty based principles - be integrated in all of its stages and expressed through a range of instruments. The resulting cultural change will mean that innovation will be better accepted as a sustainable way of addressing Europe’s societal challenges and improving its green growth prospects. Also, he concludes, that regulation has the potential to drive innovation when it is well-designed, flexible and regularly updated to reflect market developments.

The theory of ordoliberalism and the principle of non-discrimination in EU law: implications for the Member States on the example of Polish Labour Code

The principle of non-discrimination lies at the heart of the socio-economic order of the EU, the main parameters of which are sustainable economic growth, price stability, a highly competitive social market economy aiming at full employment and social progress, inclusion and social cohesion, non-discrimination, including equality between women and men and social justice (TEU: art. 3.3). Therefore, the prohibition of discrimination becomes a sine qua non condition for achieving EU treaty goals, strongly correlated with the theory of ordoliberalism. The aim of the article is to analyse the normative way of securing the principle of non-discrimination in EU law in the perspective of ordoliberalism and its implications for Polish law. The authors intend to answer the research question about the extent to which ordoliberal theory had an impact on the development of the principle of non-discrimination, understood as a subjective right to equal treatment, regardless of individual characteristics, other than nationality, through the comparison of relevant provision of EU law and the Polish Labour Code.

Václav Šmejkal, Stanislav Šaroch and Pavel Svoboda, European Union as a Highly Competitive Social Market Economy – Legal and Economic Analysis, rw & w Science & New Media, Passau-Berlin-Prague 2016, pp. 178

Václav Šmejkal, Stanislav Šaroch and Pavel Svoboda, European Union as a Highly Competitive Social Market Economy – Legal and Economic Analysis, rw & w Science & New Media, Passau-Berlin-Prague 2016, pp. 178

Social mainstreaming through the European pillar of social rights: Shielding ‘the social’ from ‘the economic’ in EU policymaking

Implementing fiscal consolidation measures without first considering social stabilisers has led to turn what originally was an economic recession into a social crisis too. The economic and social divergences in Europe have increased to a point where the future of the social dimension of the EU has been put into question. There is however, a provision in the Treaties that obliges the EU to take into account social issues in all its policies and activities, namely, the so-called horizontal social clause enshrined in Article 9 TFEU. The potential of this clause to mainstream the social dimension of the EU and foster balance between social and economic policies has, however, not yet been untapped. The recently launched European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), which aims at achieving a highly competitive social market economy, brings to the table a number of rights-based objectives along with a number of indicators that might shed some light over the constraints faced by the horizontal social clause. This article aims at unravelling the potential of the horizontal social clause in envisioning parity between the social and the economic and providing a social pillar to the EU. This contribution provides first a legal analysis of Article 9 TFEU and it briefly discusses the problematic behind its poor implementation. Later, the potential of the horizontal social clause is discussed in the light of the current developments in the framework of economic governance. This article also suggests a number of scenarios where social mainstreaming should be duly implemented. It suggests that Article 9 TFEU may have an important role, in particular, with regard to austerity measures when envisioning it together with the EPSR.

Can the social market economy be a viable solution for a future sustainable development of the Romanian economy?

AbstractSocial market economy (SME) is a socio-economic model which attempts to unite the freedom of a competitive market economy with social equilibrium and progress. It is seen as a “third path” besides a purely liberal market economy and an economy which is heavily regulated by the state – in the SME there is an intermediate degree of regulation. Historically, the model corresponds to the real economic policy of the German Federal Republic after the 1950s, thus it is sometimes called Rhine capitalism. According to the Treaty of Lisbon from 2007, the European Union pursues a competitive social market economy with full employment and social progress. On one hand, this model wishes to exploit the advantages of a free market economy, especially its high efficiency in the production of goods, while on the other hand it uses state intervention to correct for potential negative outcomes from market processes. Further characteristics of this model are: ensuring competition, free price formation, private property, motivating performance through profit aspirations as well as guarding personal freedoms. Last but not least, this model encompasses a strong structural policy by encouraging weaker geographical regions or industries. Therefore, it is highly probable that such a socio-economic model might be the appropriate alternative to fuel a sustainable growth of the Romanian economy. Using county level data, from the National Institute of Statistics and from the National Office of the Trade Register, for the year 2015 we show that the Romanian economy is highly polarized with a few growth poles (islands) and a large number of underdeveloped units. Thus, it becomes obvious that these important disparities will hinder a future sustainable development and by consequence a clear “road-map” represented by this economic model might prove to be a viable solution for the Romanian economy.

¡Europa!, a pesar de todo. Una estrategia realista

L Europe résiste malgré tout. Malgré le fait que dans un passé non lointain deux référendums, qui avaient eu lieu en France ainsi qu aux défis de la nouvelle réalité mondiale et à l hégémonie émergente de certaines grandes puissances. L événement marquant du «brexit» a provoqué une prise de conscience des Européens. Ce qui en reste est l image d une Union Européenne remplie d aspects négatifs: déficit démocratique structurel, bureaucratie hautaine, institutions bloquées, processus complexes de prise de décisions et une vague de populismes de différents bords qui ne cherchent que la destruction du système de l Union Européenne. Pour les critiques et les plus apocalyptiques, L Europe serait, d un point de vue géostratégique, un net perdant de «l hyper mondialisation », puisque l axe franco allemand ne marche plus depuis longtemps. Cela, ajouté à son manque de démocratie et de transparence et à son incapacité à faire face et aux Pays Bas, avaient servi à bloquer le processus de ratification du projet de la Constitution Européenne, celui ci a été postérieurement repris dans le Traité de Lisbonne, dans lequel sont présents les aspects les plus essentiels du projet constitutionnel ayant échoué. Les «apocalyptiques» croient que le «brexit» est le prélude d une très prochaine disparition de l UE, incapable de faire face à la crise économique et à ses conséquences sociales, à la catastrophe humanitaire des réfugiés syriens, pourrait nous faire nous demander si la construction européenne sera capable de s en sortir avec l imagination dont elle a fait preuve après les successives et périodiques crises qu elle a vécues. Après la description de quelques éléments de la crise actuelle de l UE, l éditorial pose la question suivante : les valeurs fondatrices de l Union Européenne ont elles changé ? Notre éditorial s inscrit dans la réflexion de cette revue sur l Europe, commencée il y a quelques années (les titres des éditoriaux se trouvent dans le tableau récapitulatif final). Il y a cinq ans nous sommes prononcés sur la construction européenne, en faveur de la consolidation, le développement et l approfondissement du système constitutionnel européen d Économie sociale de marché.Nous avons alors voulu promouvoir la resocialisation du projet européen avec de nouvelles énergies, avec une nouvelle clarté et une nouvelle passion tournée vers l Europe. Pour sortir de l impasse actuelle, L UE doit se libérer de cet unique modèle de capitalisme néolibéral qui est précisément à l origine de la crise actuelle. Après l introduction, nous abordons les institutions européennes et leurs résultats, ainsi que ceux produits par les politiques agraires et de cohésion régionale, souvent ignorées ou réduites au silence. Bien sûr, nous n oublions pas les aspects les plus problématiques ou négatifs, plus particulièrement la réponse insuffisante de l Europe face à la grave crise humanitaire syrienne, qui nous remet en cause face au monde et face à nous mêmes. Si la capacité de réponse des gouvernements des grandes puissances face aux grandes crises est aussi limitée, comme nous pouvons le remarquer actuellement, l UE n en est pas une exception. Cependant, dans la quatrième partie, nous présentons les défis auxquels l Europe doit faire face, avec quelques références aux politiques espagnoles développées à partir de l acquis ommunautaire.Dans la cinquième partie et dans la conclusion, nous affirmons que l UE est une réalité institutionnelle pleinement consolidée depuis longtemps, un système d économie sociale de marché hautement compétitif et solidaire et qui est capable de s insérer dans un système de gouvernance démocratique dans un monde hyper mondialisé. L Europe peut conjuguer une mondialisation modérée, une démocratie comme système et le maintien des États. Voici notre conviction : L UE est face à une stratégie réaliste possible et doit miser pleinement sur elle. C est pour cela que nous pouvons dire, malgré tout, L Europe!

Price Regulation in the Social Market Economy

Establishing open and undistorted competition within the internal market is a primary goal of the EU legal framework. Price controls, by contrast, are among the clearest derogations from this overarching objective. Yet much price regulation continues to occur within the internal market. The treatment of such regulation thus raises challenging questions, both substantive and institutional, about the nature of economic governance in the context of the EU’s ‘highly competitive social market economy’. This article begins with a consideration of price regulation, both in economic terms and in relation to its place within the institutional and ideological structure of the EU. It then examines differing approaches seen in EU law: from a sceptical prohibitive approach, to a cautious yet more receptive permissive approach, to an essentially prescriptive approach incorporating price regulation into the fabric of the internal market. The aim is to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the challenges facing the pursuit of ‘open and undistorted competition’ within a modern social market economy.

The glass half full: collective redundancies, public interest, and the (unfulfilled) potential of Europe's «highly competitive social market economy»

The glass half full: collective redundancies, public interest, and the (unfulfilled) potential of Europe's «highly competitive social market economy»

The Social Market Economy Goal of Article 3(3) TEU A Task for EU Law?

From the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty the EU has among its constitutional objectives the goal of achieving a highly competitive social market economy. At the same time, however, the EU has not been given any specific powers to actively develop its social policy. After six years of legal force of the Lisbon Treaty there is still no clarity on how should the EU interpret the legacy of German post-war Sozialmarktwirtschaft, whether it should strive for its own economic and social “Constitution”, whether it can try to fulfil the objective of social market economy through the instruments of EU law. The paper argues that some, rather partial, measures enacted by the EU legislator would be desirable and feasible without creating a danger of over-regulation that would threaten the freedoms of the internal market or distort the existing division of powers between the EU and the Member States in the social field. The social market economy concept, being itself a compromise between the free markets and social welfare requirements, can act there as a guarantee that neither unbounded market freedoms nor socializing policies would dominate the EU.

EU as a Highly Competitive Social Market Economy –Goal, Options, and Reality

Abstract In paragraph 3 of its Article 3, the Treaty on European Union (TEU) requires the EU to go after the goal of a highly competitive social market economy for the first time. It is noticeable in the aforementioned Treaty clause that although it deals with the EU internal market, its authors burdened it with a mission that is far more socially-oriented than market-oriented. However, is „a highly competitive social market econo-my“ of today a meaningful goal and does the EU in its present form have the project and powers to achieve such an objective? The paper is a combination of economic and legal -political analysis through which the authors try to answer three main questions: What is the contemporary meaning of the term “social market economy” in the both economic and EU-law academic theory? Can the EU within the powers conferred to it positively fulfill such an objective, or can it just approach it by weakening the still pre-vailing tendency towards liberalization and deregulation brought about by the construc-tion of the EU internal market and by the promotion of its freedoms?

CJEU and the Social Market Economy Goal of the EU

From the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty the EU has among its constitutional objectives the goal of achieving a highly competitive social market economy. It is for the first time in the history of integration, that the concept of social market economy found its way into the Treaty objectives. At the same time, however, the EU has not been given any specific powers to actively develop social policies. The social market economy objective is therefore largely seen as a requirement for a more balanced approach in situations where liberalizing logic of the internal market and its economic freedoms collides with social rights and security systems, which are traditionally strong in many EU countries. Such understanding of the social market economy objective increases the role of European Court of Justice (CJEU), as the Member States, through the legislative process, have not shown so far any willingness to modify by legislative acts the relationship between economic freedoms and social rights. In the pre-Lisbon period the CJEU disappointed the left side of the EU´s political spectrum by several of its judgments in which the judges gave priority to economic freedoms over social rights. It is therefore interesting to review whether the CJEU has accepted the signal brought about by changes in the primary law of the EU and whether it has approached differently the balance between economic freedoms and social rights in the name of achieving the EU´s objective of social market economy.

European Competition Law

The European Union(EU) is more than a common market and an economic union. Nevertheless, implementing the internal market is still one of the core goals of the EU. It aims to accomplish a highly competitive social market economy, protected against distortion of and interference with competition. The European competition law has gained increasing influence over the past years. One reason is the changed system of enforcement which gives national competition authorities and courts more competences to interpret and enforce European competition law. Another reason in the constant nominal thresholds which separate the scope of European and national competition law. Due to inflation and market concentration they are de-facto decreasing in the course of time. Furthermore, European cartel and merger control has to be observed not only by European companies but by any undertaking worldwide having small but not negligible turnover in the European Union. This has been illustrated by the take-over of the Californian computer producer AST Research by Samsung. Samsung marketed only marginal quantities in the EU and AST had a European market share of only 2.5% at that time. The companies failed to file a merger notification with the Commission. Though the Commission imposed comparatively small fines in that case, companies should be aware of higher fines in the future as the Commission might take the Samsung/AST case as precedent and might presume a greater awareness of European competition law.

La codificazione del diritto dei consumatori. Aspetti di diritto comparato

- The constitutional dimension of consumer rights obtained definitive consecration with the approval of the Nice Charter in December 2000, made autonomous from the Constitution, in the form of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and used not only as a political document, but also as a legal document, and with the approval of the European Constitution in October 2004, the latter subject to the ratification of all Member Countries. Among the aims of the Union, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights sets human dignity as the basic value (art.I-2) and states that the sustainable development of Europe is based on "balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress"(art.I-3). The Charter recognizes and guarantees the right of individuals to physical and mental integrity (art.II-63), reaffirmed in the form of health protection (art.II-95), respect for family life (art.II-67) and protection of personal data (art.II-68) and specifically provides "a high level of protection" for consumers (art.II-98). Consequentially, a distinction should be made between consumer claims which adhere to fundamental rights, recognized in the constitutions of the member countries, and emphasised in the European Charter, and the so-called "economic rights", which are placed on the same level of those rights referring to the "professional". The elevation of individual rights - as a "consumer" - to European constitutional level has a dual value: it binds the Community institutions and the Member States, but it also binds national courts. In this way, the Drittwirkung of the recognized and guaranteed principles may take place directly - and not only as a consequence - in the relations between individuals.

Pastoral economics within the framework of a social economy

Eucken, in his paradigm of a functionally competitive social market economy, established the basis for a free market economy which institutionalizes concerns for economic and social justice. The Bishops’ Pastoral (and also the Lay Letter) on the U.S. economy approach the concept of a social and just economy from a Christian moral tradition. A community of interests between these two approaches, as well as Donaldson’s synthesis of Nozick’s and Rawl’s theories of justice, causes a moral-economic dialogue and cross fertilization to emerge. The Bishops postulate that the evolution of a just and fair market economy, as the guarantor of freedom, human dignity, and justice, cannot be left to chance but needs to be consciously guided. Therefore, they emphasize the integration of economic theories and policies with notions of “fairness” and “justice,” advocating a holistic approach in viewing the economic system as an organic whole. This paper shows that the broad economic guidelines, which Bishops suggest, fall within the framework of a functional market economy, i.e., a social market economy. It does not deal with the religious and biblical arguments of the Pastoral Letter.