Market Citizenship: Fostering the Green Transition Through European Private Law

Abstract The common values implied in the principle of sustainable development are reshaping the economic model of a ‘competitive social market economy’ in the EU internal market, as well as the overall approach to EU law. In this context, both consumers and corporations represent a political force of a complex system made of interdependencies, where individual economic interests no longer have primacy, but at the same time the possibility to choose the less sustainable option is still an integral means of economic freedom. The idea underpinning the proposal lies on the rebalancing power of transparency in capital market. Indeed, the flow of (sustainability) information in the right direction is functional to empower stakeholders and to promote their active engagement in corporate decisions in a way that, by the means of a democratization of corporate governance, would make the whole market system more democratic.