Gobierno de la economía y desarrollo democrático de la unión europea. apuntes sobre el principio de solidaridad

The paper analyzes the relation between governance and democracy in the European Union, from the specific point of view of the principle of solidarity and its dynamics at different levels (European, national, regional). Principle of solidarity is used as a tool to analyze four dimensions of the relation between governance and democracy: the role of Parliaments and Courts in controlling decisions adopted in times of economic crisis, trying to show how principle of solidarity could be used as a paramount norm when assessing the discretion of politics on low budget resources; the role of pluralism in federal and regional systems; the relation between market and fundamental rights in the development of the European integration process; conditionality as an essential feature of the measures of economic policies adopted in the EU as a consequence of debt crisis in a number of Member States. The analysis aims to demonstrate the deep relation between solidarity among States and the effectiveness of solidarity inside States: therefore, European economic policies can preserve social balances and integral democracy, only if inspired in the principle of solidarity.