Substantive Accountability in Europe's New Economic Governance


Book Description

This book is for people interested in one of three themes: accountability, the European Union and economic governance (e.g. budgets, central banks and financial institutions). It combines leading research in law and political science.




Contesting Austerity


Book Description

This book addresses the different forms of austerity, contestation and resistance, in order to understand how they relate to one another and the impact they have on the democratic quality of public debates, the trust in public institutions and the legitimacy of law. Contestation of austerity includes not only traditional activism strategies such as human rights litigation and direct democracy instruments, but also new forms of collective action and collaborative resistance. Most importantly, many of the new anti-austerity initiatives also aim to renovate existing modes of democratic decision-making on the European, national, regional and local levels. The book focuses on different types of contesting austerity measures and the interaction between institutional and civil society actors. It will enhance understanding of how the various actors frame not only their goal but also the underlying social conflict to contest austerity and through which means they try to achieve political and legal changes. With 16 chapters written by contributors from Spain, Germany, Greece, Portugal and the UK, the book approaches 3 crucial areas of austerity policies: cuts in payment and pensions, labour law reform, and old and new poverty. In each field, the contributors analyse the processes of decision-making and contestation from 3 perspectives: institutions, democratic theory and societal responses.




Substantive Accountability in Europe's New Economic Governance


Book Description

The EU has become an increasingly powerful economic actor but we lack research on how EU economic decision-makers can be held to account. This book argues that the EU suffers from important substantive accountability deficits I.e. while numerous procedures exist to hold institutions like the Commission and ECB to account, there are few mechanisms to contest the merit and impact of economic decisions. The book combines detailed empirical research on how accountability practices are evolving across different fields of EU economic governance with a novel conceptual framework to assess where accountability deficits lie and how they might be addressed. Combining leading research in law and political science, this book will be of interest to scholars with an interest in the questions of accountability and economic governance arising from the budgets, central banks and financial institutions of the European Union. This title is Open Access.




Research Handbook on Post-Pandemic EU Economic Governance and NGEU Law


Book Description

This Research Handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of post-pandemic EU economic governance and Next Generation EU (NGEU) law. It explores the profound impact of Covid-19 on the architecture of EU economic governance, focusing on the establishment and implications of the NGEU Recovery Fund.




The Cambridge Handbook of European Monetary, Economic and Financial Integration


Book Description

Written by experts in the field, this volume offers an in-depth and forward-looking legal, economic, and political science analysis of the rationale, main features, as well as the shortcomings of European economic, monetary, and financial integration. It is primarily intended for an academic audience and policymakers.




The Individual in the Economic and Monetary Union


Book Description

A contribution to legal theories of accountability, this book offers pioneering research on the position of the individual in the EU's Economic and Monetary Union. Its premise is that the EU's response to the financial crisis placed undue emphasis on equality of Member States, to the detriment of political equality of citizens. As a remedy, this book reimagines legal accountability as the vehicle for achieving the common interest, by presenting a novel understanding of the relationship between solidarity and equality. Institutionally, the author argues that, by carrying out intensive review of the duty to state reasons, courts can ensure that decision-makers act in the common interest. The book explores judicial review in financial assistance, the monetary policy mechanisms of the European Central Bank, and the Single Supervisory Mechanism. Looking into the future, it tests its theoretical and normative propositions on the newly established Next Generation EU. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.




How to Fix the Euro


Book Description

The global economic and financial crisis that started in 2007 exposed serious flaws in the euro's original design. This report examines why Europe's economic and monetary union was so badly affected by the crisis, and assesses whether further changes need to be made to the structure of economic governance that underpins it. A Chatham House, Elcano and AREL Report




Europe in 12 Lessons


Book Description




Financial Crisis Management and Democracy


Book Description

This open access book discusses financial crisis management and policy in Europe and Latin America, with a special focus on equity and democracy. Based on a three-year research project by the Jean Monnet Network, this volume takes an interdisciplinary, comparative approach, analyzing both the role and impact of the EU and regional organizations in Latin America on crisis management as well as the consequences of crisis on the process of European integration and on Latin America’s regionalism. The book begins with a theoretical introduction, exploring the effects of the paradigm change on economic policies in Europe and in Latin America and analyzing key systemic aspects of the unsustainability of the present economic system explaining the global crises and their interconnections. The following chapters are divided into sections. The second section explores aspects of regional governance and how the economic and financial crises were managed on a macro level in Europe and Latin America. The third and fourth sections use case studies to drill down to the impact of the crises at the national and regional levels, including the emergence of political polarization and rise in populism in both areas. The last section presents proposals for reform, including the transition from finance capitalism to a sustainable real capitalism in both regions and at the inter-regional level of EU-LAC relations.The volume concludes with an epilogue on financial crises, regionalism, and domestic adjustment by Loukas Tsoukalis, President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). Written by an international network of academics, practitioners and policy advisors, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students interested in macroeconomics, comparative regionalism, democracy, and financial crisis management as well as politicians, policy advisors, and members of national and regional organizations in the EU and Latin America.




The New Intergovernmentalism


Book Description

The twenty years since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty have been marked by an integration paradox: although the scope of European Union (EU) activity has increased at an unprecedented pace, this increase has largely taken place in the absence of significant new transfers of power to supranational institutions along traditional lines. Conventional theories of European integration struggle to explain this paradox because they equate integration with the empowerment of specific supranational institutions under the traditional Community method. New governance scholars, meanwhile, have not filled this intellectual void, preferring instead to focus on specific deviations from the Community method rather than theorizing about the evolving nature of the European project. The New Intergovernmentalism challenges established assumptions about how member states behave, what supranational institutions want, and where the dividing line between high and low politics is located, and develops a new theoretical framework known as the new intergovernmentalism. The fifteen chapters in this volume by leading political scientists, political economists, and legal scholars explore the scope and limits of the new intergovernmentalism as a theory of post-Maastricht integration and draw conclusions about the profound state of political disequilibrium in which the EU operates. This book is of relevance to EU specialists seeking new ways of thinking about European integration and policy-making, and general readers who wish to understand what has happened to the EU in the two troubled decades since 1992.