ABSTRACT
In 1956, during negotiations for the Treaty of Rome, the prime minister of France, the socialist Guy Mollet, strongly supported in his initiative by the employers' organizations of his country, fought determinedly for the harmonization of national social policies. Social harmonization, including the sensitive issue of financing social security systems, was posited as a precondition for the market integration of future member states in the new Community. The social embedness of the market could be accomplished by the Member States in differentiated ways and the balance seemed stable. The idea that building a strong national social dimension and consolidating the European common market were two separate tracks fully agreed with the theoretical model of legitimacy of the newborn Community offered by the ordo-liberal school. The social concerns of the common market and the Community are, rooted within the national constitutions and the democratic institutions of the member states, including the original social autonomy recognized for trade unions.
