The Sustainability of Sustainability in the European Union: Solidarity Between Value and Normative Ambition
The concept of the sustainability of sustainability invites a dual reflection: whether the EU’s commitment to sustainability is itself sustainable, and whether its turn to value-driven policymaking can withstand the pressures of global competition, industrial transformation and geopolitical uncertainty. Within this framework, solidarity—historically a foundational value of European integration—plays a complex role. It legitimises the EU’s efforts to pursue social, environmental and economic standards, yet simultaneously exposes tensions between protecting the European population and maintaining the global competitiveness of the Union’s economy.
The panel addresses these tensions across both internal and external dimensions of EU governance. Internally, it explores current reforms in public procurement, the expansion of green public procurement, the emerging role of state aid control in the green and digital transition, minimum labour standards and working conditions, and the evolving significance of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Together, these instruments illustrate how solidarity is drifting from a political value towards a form of fragmented yet increasingly influential normativity. The discussion also considers whether the ambitions of the Green Deal, the Clean Industrial Deal and the industrial strategy outlined in the Draghi Report can sustain EU competitiveness while preserving the Union’s social and environmental identity.
Externally, the panel engages with the extraterritorial effects of EU legislation such as the CSDDD, CBAM, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and sectoral ESG obligations. These measures position the EU as a global norm-setter seeking to embed sustainability and ethical considerations into international value chains. Yet this very ambition raises the question of whether such regulatory projection strengthens the Union’s global standing or accelerates the erosion of its influence amidst increasing geopolitical and geo-economic fragmentation.
Ultimately, the panel asks: can the European Union uphold its distinctive synthesis of solidarity and sustainability of sustainability without compromising its global relevance? Or might solidarity—reinterpreted as a normative ambition—become the foundation of a new model of long-term European competitiveness? The discussion moves between normative theory, positive law and economic strategy, offering a multidimensional look at one of the EU’s defining dilemmas.
Guarantor of the section:
prof. JUDr. Ing. Ondrej Blažo, PhD.
doc. JUDr. Hana Kováčiková, PhD.
doc. JUDr. Mária T. Patakyová, PhD.