The theme of the volume
This volume is the result of a long journey, beginning in 2015, when a group of scholars organised an event in reaction to the economic crisis in Greece, which they saw as a symptom of broader European and global problems (rather than as a Greek problem). The volume takes as its starting point the European Union Treaty’s overarching objectives of sustainable development and a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment, high levels of environmental protection and social progress. It is clear that these ambitions have not been fully achieved. The work with the manuscript was concluded towards the end of 2021, where an ongoing pandemic, the continuing fall-out from Brexit and the resulting economic damage, a Grexit avoided, and potential other exits from the EU, have come to undermine the political consensus of the idea of a European Union. Amidst these challenges, the debates on how to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals have turned towards demanding more sustainable economic policies, financial investments and business actions.
The volume is positioned within a research-based concept of sustainability, defined as securing social foundations for humanity now and for the future within planetary boundaries. This provides the basis for the analyses of the potential for sustainable value creation in the EU. The book brings together contributions from experts from a range of academic disciplines, with legal scholarship at the core of the volume. The critical and constructive analysis identifies continuing challenges for the EU and the rest of the world. Yet an optimistic message is also presented. Noting that shareholder primacy is increasingly coming under question and a growing interest in the concepts of corporate purpose and sustainable value creation, the volume also presents suggestions for how to highlight the potential for corporations to be a force for good if supported by more effective legal and regulatory reforms and operating with more innovative structures and technologies.
Praise for the volume
Professor Takis Tridimas has written the foreword to the volume and highlights the volume’s critique of ‘the EU’s model of value creation and [its] call for greater emphasis on sustainability’. Professor Tridimas identifies that a premise that underpins this book is that, ‘although the EU offers an admirable value system and has made a major contribution to the well-being of the peoples of Europe, it has not achieved its full potential owing to the lack of commitment by the Member States’ and goes on to say that the contributions of the volume ‘address value creation in the EU by challenging what the authors perceive to be an eschewed conception of it and proposing its readjustment in the interests of social fairness and sustainability’. He concludes by saying that the ‘book brings to the fore some important themes, critiques prevailing policy models, and proposes solutions. The analysis is rigorous, relevant and original. It thus makes a very valuable contribution to the narrative debate and the conceptualisation of the integration model’.
Overview of the chapters of the volume
The introductory chapter as well as abstracts of all chapters are freely available on SSRN.
Chapter 1: Stimulating Value Creation in a Europe in Crisis
By Charlotte Villiers, Beate Sjåfjell and Georgina Tsagas
Chapter 2: Ten Million or One Hundred Million Casualties? COVID-19 Crisis and Europe's Sustainability Agenda
By Dirk A. Zetsche and Roberta Consiglio
Chapter 3: The Corporation and the EU Social Market Economy: A renewed commitment
By Irene Lynch Fannon and Michael James Boland
Chapter 4: Fiscal austerity and monetary largesse: the EU’s constitutional and ideological straitjacket
By Andrew Johnston and Trevor Pugh
Chapter 5: Sustainability and Eurozone 2.0: Still Impossible?
By Alexandros Kyriakidis
Chapter 6: The Economic Adjustment Program of Greece (2010-18): Why Failure?
By Panagiotis Liargovas and Voula Kratimenou
Chapter 7: Shareholder Activism: Driver or Obstacle for Sustainable Value Creation?
By Jukka Mähönen
Chapter 8: Financing Sustainable Value Creation
By Jay Cullen, Jukka Mähönen and Heidi Rapp Nilsen
Chapter 9: Integrating Sustainable Value Creation in Corporate Governance: Company Law, Corporate Governance Codes and the Constitution of the Company
By Beate Sjåfjell and Georgina Tsagas
Chapter 10: The Contribution of Social Enterprises to Value Creation in Europe: The case of Dopper BV in the Netherlands
By Tineke Lambooy, Henk Kievit, Aikaterini Argyrou, Robert Jan Blomme and Olivera Vuletic
Chapter 11: The Role of Women in Stimulating New Types of Value
By Charlotte Villiers and Roseanne Russell
Chapter 12: Pathways Towards Sustainable Value Creation in the EU
By Charlotte Villiers, Beate Sjåfjell and Georgina Tsagas
Full text of the whole volume is available through Cambridge Core at selected university libraries. More information about the volume is available on the website of Cambridge University Press