Building a socioeconomic constitution: a fantastic object?

The ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon (“Treaty”) in 2009 was heralded as a new era. It was anticipated that the Treaty would usher in a qualitative change to policymaking in Europe. This would be achieved by rebalancing, or even recalibrating, the previous economic priorities found in earlier treaties with a set of social aims and values set out in Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on European Union (“TEU”), tilting the European Union towards a social, as well as a liberal economic, constitution. The change of focus was not only attributable to a showdown between an Anglo-Saxon (liberal economic) versus French (prointerventionist) model for integration but also acknowledged the changes that have taken place in the European Union since the 1993 Treaty of Maastricht.[1] This Essay examines how the Treaty contributes to the evolution of a socioeconomic constitution for the European Union, resulting in a polity that contrasts dramatically with the original aims of the founding fathers of the European Economic Community (“EEC”). It also is shown that the economic backdrop to these changes has allowed economic and competitiveness issues to continue to dominate the policy agenda, and values of efficiency, modernization, and a “more economic approach” have permeated areas of social policy normally within the competence of the Member States. Cutbacks in public expenditure and other austerity measures create a test for the measure and effectiveness of the new era of socioeconomic values.