European Union and Human Rights: Reducing Inequalities and Asymmetries in the Context of the Economic Crisis

Abstract

The criticism aimed at the European Union (EU) because of its preference for liberalism and the market economy (more accentuated in the era of globalisation and in the context of the current economic and financial crisis) has not, however, been an obstacle to this ‘credo’ (which has characterised the Union since its origins in the 1950s) being balanced by the recognition of some human rights associated with the principle of equality (as in the treaties establishing the European Communities of 1951 and 1957) and by the progressive development of social policy (above all since the Single European Act of 1986).