Abstract

This article discusses why, starting from the end of the 1980s, European Social law progressively lost autonomy externally and experienced what appears to be an irreversible crisis. In the author's view, the reason lies primarily in the deep transformation of the political economy in the European integration process, and in the EU's economic constitution following the Treaty on the European Union. The concluding section argues that inasmuch as it is impossible to have a common set of fundamental social standards and a unitary welfare state at the European level, giving back to Member States a higher degree of autonomy and «social sovereignty» seems to be the almost unavoidable answer to the legitimacy crisis.