Market-Preserving Responses to the Social Crisis in the Eurozone

This presentation will investigate the two main political and economic paradigms, which have framed the responses formulated to the social crisis in the Eurozone by the European Council as well as by the European Commission. The first one has consisted in the reactivation of the (German) “ordoliberalism”, which had already played a key role in structuring the foundations of the European Community as well as those of the Monetary Union. The other and more recent one is the so called “Social Investment Strategy”, recently endorsed by European Commission. Both have in common to look for responses to the crisis of Social Europe by implementing or reinforcing market preserving measures. Therefore, both have had decisive consequences on the current social situation in the Economic and Monetary Union.