Month: December 2012

  • The Euro Crisis in 2012: Belief, Will it be Enough?

    by Ferdi De Ville This is my final entry in this blog on the euro crisis in 2012. Many things have happened and been decided and installed the past year, too many to recap them all here. There have been moments at which a collapse of the euro area as we know it, once unthinkable,…

  • A Good Week for the Euro?

    by Ferdi De Ville Those that still doubted that the EU was a right choice for the Nobel Peace Prize have been rebuked by the Heads of State and Government of the euro area at last week’s summit (13-14/12). The leaders decided at this meeting, which for months was announced as the gathering that would…

  • Crisis Management and Integration at Gun Point

    by Daniela Schwarzer The ways decision-making that has taken place both in crisis management and in governance reform has increased the perception of democratic deficits in the EU. At peaks of the crisis, key decisions were taken at emergency summits, discarding the European Parliament, providing a key role to Germany and France at the costs…

  • Technocracy versus Democracy

    by Daniela Schwarzer The fact that the crises hit the euro area so hard revealed fundamental flaws in the architecture of the currency union. The absence of joint fiscal and economic policies or transnational budgetary stabilisation mechanisms are two of them. In response to the crisis, the EU decided to reinforce rule-based, technocratic coordination both…

  • Economic Liberalism and Democracy

    by Daniela Schwarzer More and more, the debate in Europe is turning towards the question whether we are facing a crisis of legitimacy or even democracy in the EU – on top of the banking and sovereign debt crisis. In this and two following blog posts I am developing some thoughts on the challenges national…

  • Launching a European debate?

    by Ferdi De Ville Thus is the subtitle of the Communication from the European Commission ‘A blueprint for a deep and genuine economic and monetary union’ presented by President Barroso on 28 November. Without the question mark, of course. But I put it there, because it remains to be seen if this long document full…