European economic governance [What Think Tanks are thinking]

Written by Marcin Grajewski

The 2008-09 financial crisis and the ensuing recession have prompted the euro area and the European Union to start overhauling their economic governance system. They established three authorities to better supervise the financial markets, improved mechanisms to oversee and coordinate fiscal policies, created procedures to correct economic imbalances, and launched a Banking Union. The euro-area countries created rescue funds for countries in economic trouble. The reform process continues and is high on the EU agenda for the first half of 2015.

The European Council in December 2014 called for further steps to improve economic governance, tasking the President of the European Commission, helped by the President of Euro Summit, President of the Eurogroup and the President of the European Central Bank to draft a report on further steps. The four Presidents published an analytical note in February, suggesting that economic governance needs further, profound changes or the euro zone may face continued high unemployment and low growth. The note posed questions to EU heads of state and government about future reforms. A full report is to be published ahead of the EU summit in June. The European Parliament is currently finishing work on the report on economic governance (Berès report). In his speech to an informal European Council meeting in February, EP President Martin Schulz called for a full involvement of the Parliament, on equal footing with other institutions, in the ongoing analysis of the needed reforms.

The think tank community is currently holding a lively debate on euro governance and a wider discussion on the way the EU should be run. This note offers links to recent commentaries, studies and reports on the topic from major international think tanks and research institutes.

Commentaries

Euro-area governance: What to reform and how to do it  Bruegel, February 27, 2015

Juncker’s three steps to improve the Commission’s standing in the EU

Centre for European Reform (CER), February 11, 2015

Emotional intelligence for EU democracy  Carnegie Europe, January 26, 2015

Repair and Prepare: Strengthening Europe’s economies after the crisis

Jacques Delors Institute, Bertelsmann Stiftung, January 13, 2015

A new balance of power in the Council? Yes, but not yet…  Centre for European Reform, December 19, 2015

The case of the disappearing Fiscal Compact  Centre for European Policy Studies(CEPS), November 5, 2014

‘Rethink and reset’: Time to get rid of the Stability and Growth Pact?

European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), November, 2014

An investment new deal for Europe  Brookings Institution, September 3, 2014

Analyses

Living (dangerously) without a fiscal union Bruegel, March 24, 2015

Fiscal policy coordination: A necessary step for the euro zone recovery

Luiss School of European Political Economy, March 3, 2015

Réparer et préparer : renforcer les économies européennes après la crise  Notre Europe, January 30, 2015

In search of a new equilibrium: Economic imbalances in the euro zone

Instituto Affari Internazionali, January, 2015

Is Europe’s economic stagnation inevitable or policy-driven?

Centre for European Reform, December 23, 2015

Enhancing the legitimacy of EMU governance  Centre for European Policy Studies, December 18, 2014

Rebuilding Europe’s common future: Combining growth and reform

Peterson Institute for International Economics, December, 2014

The sense and nonsense of euro-zone level democracy  Egmont, October, 2014

Policy recommendations for the new European Commission: Priorities for stabilising EMU

European Policy Centre, September 30, 2014

Interpreting the Stability and Growth Pact  Lisbon Council, September 10, 2014

Labour market reforms and current account imbalances: Beggar-thy-neighbour policies in a currency union? Centre for European Policy Studies, September 8, 2014

EU to Do 2015-2019: Memos to the new EU leadership  Bruegel, September 4, 2015

Who leads the new EMU? Implications of the economic crisis for the EU’s institutions

Finnish Institute of International Affairs, February, 2014

Related publications

Unequal Europe: Recommendations for a more caring EU Friends of Europe, February 24, 2015

The four unions ‘pie’ on the Monetary Union ‘cherry’  Bruegel, February 9, 2015

Debt sustainability and economic convergence of euro area member states: Challenges and solutions

Peterson Institute for International Economics, February, 2015

An unemployment insurance scheme for the euro area: A simulation exercise of two options

Centre for European Policy Studies, December 9, 2014

Towards a new industrial policy for Europe  European Policy Centre, November 12, 2014

Tax harmonization in Europe: Moving forward  Bruegel, July 17, 2014

European Parliament publications

A history of European monetary integration

European Parliamentary Research Service, Members’ Research Service, March 16, 2015

Main elements of the Banking Union

Directorate-General for Internal Policies, Economic Governance Support Unit, March 23, 2015

The economic governance framework of EMU: stocktaking of building blocks

Directorate-General for Internal Policies, Economic Governance Support Unit, February 19, 2015