Hennette, Stéphanie, Sacriste, Thomas Piketty Guillaume, Vauchez, Antoine, (2017), “For A Treaty Democratizing Euro Area Governance”, Social Europe, 27 April
Over the last ten years of economic and financial crisis, a new centre of European power has taken shape: the ‘government’ of the Euro Area. The expression may seem badly chosen as it remains hard to identify the democratically accountable ‘institution’ which today implements European economic policies. We are indeed aiming at a moving and blurred target. Characterized by its informality and opacity, the central institution of that government, the Eurogroup of Finance Ministers of the Euro Area, operates outside the framework of the European treaties and is in no way accountable to the European Parliament, nor to national parliaments. Worse, the institutions that form the backbone of that government – from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Commission to the Eurogroup and the European Council – operate following combinations that constantly vary from one policy to the other (Troika Memoranda, European Semester ‘budgetary recommendations’ and bank ‘evaluations’ under the Banking Union).
Relevant Posts
- Mersch, Yves, (2017), “Why Europe Still Needs Cash”, Project Syndicate, 26 April
- Rinaldi, David, Núñez Ferrer, Jorge, (2017), “The European Fund for Strategic Investments as a New Type of Budgetary Instrument”, CEPS Research Report No 2017/07, 5 April