European Economic Ethics Research: A Diagnosis

Zusammenfassung

---

The purpose of the European Economic Community's founders was not only "mercantilist', but "economic", in the broader sense of the term "economics". If there has been a specific model of Europe, it has been the social market economy. But the crisis of the welfare state has raised doubts about key features of that model. Does Europe have anything particular to offer in the economic realm? The approaches of economic ethics that have been developed in Europe have a lot to say in the formation of a "Euroethos". The article tries to show the main European approaches and to delineate the traits of a European proposal.

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

Auszug

---

European Economic Ethics Research: A Diagnosis

1. Is the European Union also an ethical-economic project?

There is a long history behind the establishment of the European Union, although it was only after the Second Wodd War that Robert Schuman took the first step towards creating the European Community: integrating and jointly managing Franco-German coal and steel production in order to increase wealth and, above all, lay the foundations for harmony. It was thought that a European Federation could gradually be formed from this position. The European Coal and Steel Community was set up in 1951 with the Paris Treaty. In 1957 the 'Six' (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Nethedands and Luxembourg) signed the Treaties of Rome, by means of which the European Economic Community (EEQ and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) were created. From this point the process of building the European Union went on in several different stages.1

It is undeniable that the European Union's creation as an economic community stemming from the Coal and Steel Community led voices from the left to criticise the fact that the European Union had in the first line been bom as a 'Europe of Merchants', which only gradually would insist on also becoming a 'Europe of Politicians' and, later on, a ?????e of Citizens'. In the meantime, the first target has been achieved to a greater or lesser extent; the second is still a long way off, and the third even further away. But the actual fact is - as scholars and citizens say quite truly - that without a Citizens' Europe it will be very hard to achieve a political and economic Europe, which is why it is urgent to build that Europe of Citizens.

On the other hand, it is also true that the purpose of the European Economic Community's founders was not only 'mercantilist', in the exclusively monetary sense of the term, but 'economic', in the broader sense of the term 'economies'. If economics has the aim of helping to create a good society, as we will defend in this paper, then one must acknowledge that the founders of the European Community were setting out to build a pacific Europe, based on creating wealth and common tasks calling for peoples' cooperation rather than coming into conflict. The economic workings should have a positive-sum outcome and help to build peace.

The founders of the European Community were implicitly agreeing on Kant's view that striving for peace is an ethical-juridical duty, as practical reason utters its irrevocable veto: "[t]here ought to be no war (. . .), because this is not the w...

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

---