The Neo-liberal Twist of European Integration as a Degradation of Social Constitutionalism. Counter-trends in the Management of the Pandemic

The aim of this article is to attempt to describe the neoliberal twist imposed on the process of European integration as a phenomenon of constitutional degradation, since it affects the most qualifying and progressive advances of social constitutionalism: the protection of social rights as constitutional rights and substantive equality as the main purpose of government. To this end, the mismatch between European primary law and constitutions with a high social content is analyzed under three different perspectives: firstly, the technique of the protection of social rights, highlighting the difference in the origin and evolution of the two catalogues of rights; secondly, the technical rather then political nature of the decision-making; finally, the problem of sovereignty between EU and Member States.