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FREE LAW JOURNAL - VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1 (18 JULY 2005)
Union means that the attainment of the objectives and the enforcement of the rights set out in the TCE
presuppose the implementation of the model of social market economy, in other words a base on which
these can be realised. 65
c) With regard to the attainment of the objectives and the implementation of the tasks, the TCE lays down
the principle of sincere cooperation, 66 pursuant to which the Union and the Member States mutually
respect and assist each other in carrying out the tasks which follow from the Constitution. This provision
obliges the Member States both in a positive and in a negative sense. On the one hand the Member States
take any appropriate measure, general or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of
the Constitution or resulting from the acts of the institutions of the Union and assist the Union in carrying
out its tasks, on the other hand they refrain from any measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the
Union’s objectives. This negative obligation – in respect of our theme – entails that the Member States
cannot actually deviate from the principle of social market economy which otherwise has been regarded
as flexible, without jeopardising the objectives of the Union. In the case of the Member States which
incorporated at least the principle of market economy or some of its elements into their new constitutions,
this is also helped to be achieved by the relevant provisions of their national constitutions besides the
authorisation clause.
The positive, active obligation includes the task of the Member States set out in Article III-178, pursuant
to which, on the one hand, Member States shall conduct their economic policies in order to contribute to
the achievement of the Union’s objectives as defined in Article I-3 and in accordance with the broad
guidelines of the economic policies formulated by the Council on recommendation from the Commission.
On the other hand, Member States shall coordinate their economic policies which are declared to be a
matter of common concern within the Council. 67 This article also lays down that the Member States and
the Union shall act in accordance with the principle of an open market economy with free competition,
favouring an efficient allocation of resources, and in compliance with the principles of stable prices,
sound public finances and monetary conditions and a stable balance of payments. 68 The above elements of
the Union’s economic constitution are parts of the economic constitutions of the Member States,
consequently, the economic constitutions of the Member States not only include the provisions of the
Member States’ constitutions pertaining to the economy, but also the relevant provisions of the TCE, thus,
national legislators have to take these into consideration in the course of formulating their economic
policies.
4 The Other Central Element of the Economic Constitution of the Union: the Relevant
Fundamental Rights 69
a) In the Preamble of the Charter of Fundamental Rights the TCE lays down that it places the individual
in the heart of its activities. This principle is to be interpreted as one of the conceptual elements of the
fundamental rights, as the acknowledgement of the fundamental rights is based on the perception that it is
65 Fundamental rights cannot be realised – according to current experience – to the appropriate extent in a different economic
system. The freedom to choose occupation, the freedom to enterprise, the right to property and the free evolution of the
personality as part of human dignity laid down in the Charter can only be realised to the full extent in a social market economy.
66 Article I-5 (2)
67 Common commercial policy, industrial policy, monetary policy and environmental policy also belong to it.
68 Article III-177 Cf. Part I Title 7 and Part III Chapter II Section 2.
69 See for instance Mónika Weller: Emberi jogok és európai integráció [Human Rights and European Integration]. Emberi
Jogok Magyar Központja Közalapítvány 2000, in particular pp 123-130 and 172-289.
DR. TÍMEA DRINÓCZI - SOME ELEMENTS OF THE ECONOMIC CONSTITUTION OF THE EU: SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY AND RELEVANT FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS 75