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Publishers Abstract:
Considerations of social policy at the EU are increasingly taken into account both at the political and at the legal level. At the political level, the Lisbon strategy, one of the most ambitious political projects of the EU for the years to come, is impregnated with social objectives. This article is intended to show that, at a time when it becomes vital for the EU to undertake some basic societal choices, the rule of law, built through the operation of the internal market, as applied by the Court of Justice and developed by the EU legislature does already offer a minimal guarantee for the realization of the social objectives of the Lisbon strategy and its associated policies. The evolution of the EU from a purely economic cooperation into a polity, which must make certain basic choices in order to safeguard its social web, may become a legal necessity, and not just a political choice.
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