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‘New’ Social Democracy before the Court of Justice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2017
Extract
Community law has seen some of the fiercest battles over ‘new’ social democracy and ‘Third Way’ politics. To simplify somewhat, the core idea of the Third Way is to rely on the market to provide services to the public efficiently, without however disconnecting them from certain key social values. In the Community legal order, these social policy devices invite the application of the Community’s economic jurisdiction, where public services can be classified as ‘market’ services. They frequently lead to what Joerges has labelled ‘diagonal’ conflicts between the Community’s economic law and its competence to uphold the EU Internal Market, and the Member States’ individual choice, and competence, to administer their welfare states. In ‘diagonal’ conflict situations, a single set of facts is analysed via two different ‘logics’, one following the economic perspective of the Internal Market, and the other marking the Member State’s political and social competence, where states are regularly guided by a more diffuse set of values, including public and constitutional rights, and practical political pressures. Whilst states may well invite the market into their welfare state, for example as part of a political ‘third way’ solution, the national electorate, who will ultimately hold public authorities accountable, are likely to concentrate their judgement on the realisation of substantive public service targets rather than how they have been achieved.
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- Copyright © Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge 2006
References
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3 On 23 June 2005.
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24 Case C–41/90, Höfner and Elser v Macrotron GmbH [1991] ECR I–1979, para 21.
25 Ibid, at paras 22–31.
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29 Edwards, D, and Hoskins, M, above n 20.
30 Commission, above n 12, at 3.
31 Joined Cases C–264/01, C–306/01, C–354/01 and C–355/01, AOK Bundesverband v Ichthyol-Gesellschaft Cordes, Hermani & Co [2004] ECR I–2493.
32 Opinion of AG Jacobs, Joined Cases C–264/01, C–306/01, C–354/01 and C–355/01, AOK Bundesverband v Ichthyol-Gesellschaft Cordes, Hermani & Co [2004] ECR I–2493, delivered on 22 May 2003, para 55.
33 Ibid, at para 59.
34 Case T–319/99, Federacion Nacional de Empresas de Instrumentacion Cientifica, Medica, Tecnica y Dental (FENIN) v Commission [2003] ECR II–357.
35 Ibid, at para 36.
36 Ibid, at para 37.
37 Opinion of AG Poiares Maduro, Case C–205/03 P, Federacion Nacional de Empresas de Instrumentacion Cientifica, Medica, Tecnica y Dental (FENIN) v Commission, delivered on 10 November 2005, paras 58 to 69. The most important passages can be found at paras 65, 67 and 68.
38 Ibid, at para 68.
39 See above n 21.
40 Case T–319/99, Federacion Nacional de Empresas de Instrumentacion Cientifica, Medica, Tecnica y Dental (FENIN) v Commission [2003] ECR II–357, para 15.
41 Ibid, at para 21.
42 For example, the usual definition of ‘undertaking’, which is normally determined by looking at the nature of the function or activity. See above n 24.
43 Case C–185/91 Reiff [1993] ECR I–5801; Case C–35/96, Commission v Italy [1998] ECR I–3851; Joined Cases C-180-184/98, Pavlov and Others [2000] ECR I–6451.
44 Joined Cases C–264/01, C–306/01, C–354/01 and C–355/01, AOK Bundesverband v Ichthyol-Gesellschaft Cordes, Hermani & Co. [2004] ECR I–2493, para 63 (my emphasis).
45 Ibid at para 61.
46 Ibid.
47 Opinion of AG Jacobs, Joined Cases C–264/01, C–306/01, C–354/01 and C–355/01, AOK Bundesverband v Ichthyol-Gesellschaft Cordes, Hermani & Co [2004] ECR I–2493, delivered on 22 May 2003, paras 52–53.
48 Joined Cases C–264/01, C–306/01, C–354/01 and C–355/01, AOK Bundesverband v Ichthyol-Gesellschaft Cordes, Hermani & Co [2004] ECR I–2493, para 56. Emphasis added.
49 Ibid at para 56.
50 Opinion of AG Jacobs, Joined Cases C–264/01, C–306/01, C–354/01 and C–355/01, AOK Bundesverband v Ichthyol-Gesellschaft Cordes, Hermani & Co [2004] ECR I–2493, para 42.
51 Ibid at para 39.
52 Opinion of AG Poiares Maduro, Case C–205/03 P, Federacion Nacional de Empresas de Instrumentacion Cientifica, Medica, Tecnica y Dental (FENIN) v Commission, delivered on 10 November 2005, para 41.
53 Ibid at para 52.
54 Case C–120/595, Decker [1998] ECR I–1831; Case C–158/98, Kohll [1998] ECR I–1931; and Case C–157/99, Smits and Peerbooms [2001] ECR I–5473.
55 Opinion of AG Poiares Maduro, Case C–205/03 P, Federacion Nacional de Empresas de Instrumentacion Cientifica, Medica, Tecnica y Dental (FENIN) v Commission, delivered on 10 November 2005, para 51.
56 Case C–70/95, Sodemare v Regione Lombardia [1997] ECR I–3395.
57 Ibid at para 62.
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60 Opinion of AG Poiares Maduro, Case C–205/03 P, Federacion Nacional de Empresas de Instrumentacion Cientifica, Medica, Tecnica y Dental (FENIN) v Commission, delivered on 10 November 2005, para 52.
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63 Opinion of AG Jacobs, Joined Cases C–264/01, C–306/01, C–354/01 and C–355/01, AOK Bundesverband v Ichthyol-Gesellschaft Cordes, Hermani & Co [2004] ECR I–2493, delivered on 22 May 2003, para 59.
64 It is possible to think of a scenario where the Courts, on balance, may find that unfair or anti-competitive state practice leads to a risk for the consumer by leaving the commercial supplier unable to provide its services satisfactorily. The UK Competition Tribunal recently found that an NHS Trust was, as an undertaking, bound by the UK Competition Act 1988 when it purchased nursing and residential home care services from its market contractor. The supplier had made serious complaints about the Trust’s contractual behaviour, which it alleged to have been ‘totally inequitable’. Amongst other things, the Trust made it ‘increasingly difficult, to the point of impossible, to provide the services required within the price [the Trusts] determine and this is placing Bettercare in the invidious position of either failing to provide services as required or operating at a continuous deficit’: Case 1006/2/1/01 BetterCare Group Limited v Director General of Fair Trading [2002] CAT 6, [2002] Comp AR 229.
65 Again, see ibid.