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Varieties of Capitalism and the Limits of European Economic Integration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2017
Abstract
This chapter considers European economic integration from the perspective of varieties of capitalism. It notes the main threats that integration potentially entails both for liberal and coordinated market economies, and assesses the likelihood of damage to the different models, in particular following the Lisbon Treaty. It is argued descriptively that both types of capitalism can continue to coexist in the European Union, and normatively that it is vital that the integration project is managed in a way that does not fundamentally endanger them.
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- Copyright © Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge 2011
References
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35 Under the ordinary legislative procedure, a majority of national parliaments can also bring the legislator to consider the issue of subsidiarity before the first reading has been concluded, at which point 55% of the members of the Council or a majority of the votes cast in the European Parliament can reject the proposal forthwith.
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74 Case C-515/08 Santos Palhota [2010] ECR I-0000 para 53. The Court did not address this argument.
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88 Euro Plus Pact: Stronger Economic Policy Coordination for Competitiveness and Convergence, annexed to Conclusions of the European Council 24 and 25 March 2011, available at www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/120296.pdf. A number of non-eurozone countries have agreed to join the pact voluntarily.
89 For example, ‘Each country will be responsible for the specific policy actions it chooses to foster competitiveness, but the following reforms will be given particular attention: (i) respecting national traditions of social dialogue and industrial relations, measures to ensure costs developments in line with productivity, such as: review the wage setting arrangements, and, where necessary, the degree of centralisation in the bargaining process, and the indexation mechanisms, while maintaining the autonomy of the social partners in the collective bargaining process.’
90 Soskice, D, ‘Macroeconomics and Varieties of Capitalism’ in Hancké, B, Rhodes, M and Thatcher, M (eds), Beyond Varieties of Capitalism: Conflict, Contradictions, and Complementarities in the European Economy (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.
91 See Hall, above n 3.
92 As emphasised by Streek, above n 11.
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