Completing A Genuine Economic And Monetary Union

This Element examines efforts to strengthen Economic and Monetary Union in the European Union, especially over the last decade, asking if enough has been done to render it more sustainable and resilient. Drawing on a survey of 111 leading experts on the economics and politics of EMU, this Element reviews the wide-ranging reforms undertaken since the crises of the early 2010s and assesses whether they go far enough. Although it concludes that much has been done to push the euro towards being a more complete currency, it identifies remaining flaws and challenges which EU leaders need to resolve.

Analyzes the roots of Europe's economic decline, examining institutions of the European Union and exploring possibilities for reform.

The contributions to this book examine the two main asymmetries of the Euro Area as they have intensified during the second decade of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU): the first between monetary union (more supranational governance) versus 'economic' union (less centralised governance); the second between those Euro Area member states of the so-called 'core' and those of the 'periphery'. EMU stands as one of the European Union's (EU) flagship integration achievements. Set up in 1999, with the large majority of EU member states at the time, EMU was described as 'asymmetrical' even prior to its start. From the outset, it involved asymmetrical integration in monetary and 'economic' union. Although a major element of the blueprint that paved the way for the final stage of EMU, the concept of 'economic' union was insufficiently developed. The second decade of the single currency gave rise to a second asymmetry, namely one between those Euro Area member states of the 'core' and those of the 'periphery'. The ten contributions to this volume speak to one or both of these asymmetries, covering the major political, political economy and policy dimensions of EMU and the ongoing debates about necessary policy and institutional reforms to overcome these asymmetries and bolster Euro Area stability. The outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Crisis in 2020 created unprecedented socio-economic challenges for Euro Area member states, heightening the perceived urgency of reform. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has prompted much discussion. This book stands back and considers the relevant theory or what lessons might be drawn from other unions that have been formed as well as looking at EMU directly.

The future of European Monetary Union (EMU) stands as one of the most important economic issues of the era. The author argues that in the event of macroeconomic shocks, rather than acting as a cohesive force, EMU could give rise to disunity. As EMU is not an optimal currency area, asymmetric shocks affecting each country differently could be critical to its future. The success of EMU depends upon the ability of institutions in the EU to satisfy the monetary and fiscal policy demands of sufficient numbers of national constituents, interest groups, and multinational corporations. This book employs principles from public choice to analyze the EU institutions that participate in the monetary policy making process of EMU and assesses whether they have the mechanisms to cope with asymmetric macroeconomic shocks. In particular, it examines the European Council, Council of Ministers, European Commission, European Parliament and the European Central Bank. This book provides an invaluable critique of the EMU plan and will be of interest to scholars of European economics, macroeconomics and public choice.

This text provides an unrivalled account of the history, theory and practice of monetary integration in Europe.

Who were key figures in the making of European monetary union? Which ideas did they contribute to ensuring that monetary union would be sustainable? How prescient were they in identifying the necessary and sufficient foundations of a sustainable monetary union? This book provides the first systematic historical examination of key architects of European monetary union in the period before its launch in 1999. Using original archival and interview research, it investigates the intellectual and career backgrounds of these architects, their networking skills, and their own doubts and reservations about the way in which monetary union was being constructed. In the light of the later Euro Area, Architects of the Euro deals critically with not just their contribution to the making of European monetary union but also their legacy. The book brings together a distinguished group of scholars working on the history of Economic and Monetary Union.

​A regulatory idea conducted this work: the need to connect the economic rationale of the theory of currency areas with the current EU institutional frame of the European monetary unification process. The latter includes the recent revamping of fiscal rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, and calls for enhancing ‘flexicurity’ in EU labour markets. The lack of EU political leadership is a dead-weight loss to build a genuine economic and monetary union, and risks to blow-up the whole project. Further, it undermines the internal macroeconomic logic of a single currency like the euro, and gives a prominent non-democratic role to financial markets. As it happened in the past with the gold-standard, the euro condemns today the peripheral countries to a deflationary process which might last for a decade. A more pro-European approach is needed with both sides of the system (core and periphery) making the required adjustment efforts, though in the opposite way, to save the eurozone and Europe. “The theory of optimal currency areas remains the essential framework to understand the design failures of the eurozone. In order to understand these dramatic economic developments that grip the eurozone, Sanchis i Marco’s book is the right one at the right time. He does a superb job in explaining this theory and in making it relevant for our understanding of the problems faced by the eurozone. The last two chapters of the book turn towards an analysis of the crisis of the euro and how to get out of this crisis. By suggesting a path out of the crisis, Professor Sanchis i Marco leaves us with some hope for the future for Spain and other eurozone countries.” Prof. Paul De Grauwe, London School of Economics