The term ‘social market economy’ was introduced in the Treaty on European Union in order to emphasise that social and economic objectives of the European Union are both important, and have to be reconciled with each other. This contribution describes how social objectives have been developed in EU law since the establishment of the European Economic Community. The Court of Justice of the European Union has interpreted Treaty provisions to give them maximum effect for the realization of these objectives. However, tensions with the economic objectives exist when economic freedoms are confronted with social rights. This contribution examines how the CJEU balances these interests, and how this relates to the social market economy. There are also areas where economic rights have no counterpart at the EU level, but where they interact with social policies of Member States. Here too, the concept of social market economy is relevant. After a discussion of these various dimensions of the term social market economy, the subsequent articles of this Special Issue are introduced.

中文翻译：

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社会和经济权利在社会市场经济中如何相互联系：本期特刊简介

《欧洲联盟条约》引入了“社会市场经济”一词，以强调欧洲联盟的社会和经济目标既重要，又必须相互调和。该文稿描述了自欧洲经济共同体成立以来，欧盟法律如何发展社会目标。欧洲联盟法院对条约的规定进行了解释，以使它们对实现这些目标发挥最大作用。但是，当经济自由面临社会权利时，就会与经济目标产生紧张关系。这篇文章探讨了欧洲法院如何平衡这些利益，以及这与社会市场经济的关系。在某些地区，经济权利在欧盟一级也没有，但它们与会员国的社会政策相互影响。在这里，社会市场经济的概念也很重要。在讨论了术语社会市场经济的各个方面之后，将介绍本期特刊的后续文章。