Jelena Seredina-matiusi

Application of Ec Freedoms Horizontally: European Law Jelena Seredina-matiusi

Horizontal application of European Community (EC) freedoms directly to private persons deserves to be charakterised as contradictive and methodologicaly inappropriate on the EC postenlargement period. The social rational of Europe was recognised by the Community policy objective, therefore widening the horizons of policy objectives. However, the human rights issues built into the social dimension of the EC policy, makes the necessity to balance between human rights values, on one hand, and EC freedoms, on the other hand. Such a dillemma within the judicial weighing of European Court of Justice (ECJ)would not problematical and innovative if ECJ would apply EC freedoms vertically, directly to memeber states and not to private persons. Moreover, ECJ judicial weighing is not an appropriate framework for balancing private interests between the subjects of private law, as was done by ECJ in Laval situation. The private persons enjoy the legal autonomy, which must be protected and their protection optimised, taking by starting point the weaker part, namely employee. Does ECJ establish a new hierarchy of values, balancing in Laval case to the benefits of employer and EC freedoms?