The Solidarity Deficit of the EU during the Great Recession: A missing functional value

A growing body of literature is pointing towards the lack of solidarity in the European Union as a crucial deficit. But what is EU solidarity and why do we need it? First, we reconstruct the role of solidarity in the neo-functionalist and post-functionalist accounts of European Integration, highlighting how solidarity is required by functional pressures: if a stable economic system is to be secured, then some compensatory measures for asymmetries in economic trajectories among Member States need to be contemplated in order to defuse centripetal pressures especially in times of crises. Second, we clarify the notion of social function, which is largely under-theorized in the neo/post-functionalist literature. Drawing on the etiological literature, we defend an account of social functions which is naturalistic (compatible with our scientific view of the world), objective (independent from the observer’s goals), and selective (not every tendency counts as a function). Third, we discuss the normative implications of the lack of EU Solidarity in relation to the Great Recession and the EU managing of the crisis. In doing so, we will empirically demonstrate how existing institutions (Cohesion Policy) and the general economic performance of the Euro Area were affected by the lack of functional EU solidarity, changing the developmental trajectory of the EU to adapt to the lack of functionality.