Competition excluded from the objectives of the Treaty, really?

(B2) "Free and undistorted" competition would be excluded from the objectives of the European Union, the rumor fuses and spreads in the ranks of the delegations and journalists present for this second day of the summit meeting in Brussels. Indeed, confirms the Elysée, we have obtained this progress. It is important to say that competition is not an objective in itself. " The French said no to 55%. I try to take it into account explains Nicolas Sarkozy.

In fact, nothing has really changed. But through a very ingenious set of legal tricks, Chancellor Merkel and her team have raised social principles – full employment, social protection, the fight against social exclusion, the rights of the child – to the ranks of supreme objectives of Europe (at the head of the EU Treaty). While the objective of "free and undistorted competition" has been downgraded to a mere policy enforcement tool (in the EC Treaty). This change does not really affect the powers of the European Commission, which will be able to continue to initiate proceedings against recalcitrant States or companies, or even impose fines on them.

The argument may have weight in front of the judges. The Commission could indeed be led to justify before the judges that it does not violate social principles when it uses its powers of competition in this area. An argument that could carry weight in cases like the A booklet
open to banks, for example, or state aid for social housing in the Netherlands.

(NGV)