Although the Treaty of Amsterdam has not lived up to the expectations of those who wanted a substantially stronger and more active European Union, it has expanded considerably the competences of the Union. In some policy areas such as social policy, it has added significantly to the obligations of the member states. By implication, the policy discretion of member states has been reduced further. The reasonable question that arises is whether the Union will and whether it should keep encroaching on the policy discretion (some use the word sovereignty) of its member states? The aim of this paper is to provide an answer to that question with respect to the economic functions of member states.
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