Competitiveness and solidarity in the history of the European Union, 1957–2017

Abstract

While some scholars consider that the European integration process has always had a dominant neoliberal component, this contribution will argue that, on the contrary, the development of the European Union since its inception in 1957 (as the EEC) has always been characterized by a balance between three types of policies : socially-oriented, neomercantilist, and market-oriented, with neoliberalism being a radical version of the latter category