A European model

The economic and financial crisis that overwhelmed first America, then Europe and the rest of the world, has not yet been overcome everywhere. After its acute phase, in which such considerations as how to counter its effects and prevent the worst took priority, what’s now at the forefront is the question of how to address the causes of the crisis and with it the question of how to adopt new rules for a solid and sustainable financial economy. The question was tackled in recent days at the World Economic Forum annually held at Davos in Switzerland. From the report of the US Commission of Inquiry published a few days ago it clearly emerges that this crisis was not a natural event, but the result of mistaken evaluations, as well as irresponsible human behaviour and inertia on the part of the banks, supervisory authorities and government policy. This misconduct was actively supported by an ideology of deregulation especially cultivated in the USA over the last thirty years and based on the more or less absolute freedom of the market. Since then this ideology has been applied in the economic and social system, but undoubtedly in an exaggerated way in more recent years. The spread of the crisis from America to Europe may also be attributed to the fact that, since the Nineties, American economic philosophy has also found many supporters on this side of the ocean: those who asserted that the economic and social model on which post-war Europe had based its reconstruction and its revival was by now obsolete in the light of globalization. But in reality this model was not overcome: it was betrayed, thus determining the crisis that has also struck our continent. If the crisis in Europe is to be finally overcome, it is therefore essential in the first place to rediscover and apply in a determined way the principles and practices of the social market economy, all the more so since this model belongs to the very European identity. It belongs to the traditional methods of economic and social policy developed in the countries of the European continent since the end of the 19th century. The social market economy thus became the model on the basis of which the Treaties of Rome, on which the European Community/Union was founded, were realized. At the centre of this European economic and social model is the constant effort to balance the needs of social dynamics with those of social justice, primarily through the incorporation of the synergy of market forces in a wider system of rules and regulations aimed at preventing anomalous developments and abuses, so as to respond in a fair and equable way to the fundamental needs at the social level by guaranteeing a sufficient level of social security. This also includes the institutionalization of solidarity through welfare systems in the case of illness, old age, unemployment and poverty. The right of social partners and other groups of civil society to exert their own influence and actively intervene also represents an integral and important part of this European model, which also implies the promotion of an ethics of responsibility and of moderation on the part of those who contribute to economic life. These elements of the social economy correspond, moreover, to the principles of Christian social doctrine and follow the inspiration of the papal encyclicals “Rerum Novarum”, “Quadragesimo Anno” and “Laborem Exercens”. Currency stability and a sound economic development are important premises for social security which represents, for Europeans, a strong element of their identity. In the experience of citizens of the European Union, all the questions connected with this issue continue, however, to be linked to their respective national states, to which their hopes and aspirations are addressed. The system of powers and responsibilities of the Union, as defined by the Treaties, takes this situation into account. The fears of losing stability in the monetary field, of compromising economic growth or jeopardizing social security place in question the level of acceptance of European unity and prevent the development of a consciousness of the European identity, in the case in which – e.g. in the field of the role of the Euro – the blame for them is placed on Europe. To overcome the crisis that persists and permanently win the trust of citizens in the capacity and role of safeguard of the European Union, the latter, together with the member states, should therefore return to the social market economy and the moral principles on which it is founded.