Sander, H. (2015) “The ‘Juncker plan’ does not offer a genuine route to boosting the Eurozone’s recovery“, LSE EUROPP, 19 March.   On 10 March, EU finance ministers agreed to roll out Jean-Claude Juncker’s flagship investment programme, commonly termed the ‘Juncker plan’. Harald Sander writes on the economic impact the plan could have in the Eurozone. He argues that while it has been portrayed by some observers as a route …Read More

Kowalsky, W. (2015) “Where Now For The Europe 2020 Strategy?”, Social Europe Journal, 18 March.   Does the Commission take unemployment as a serious challenge? What future for the Europe 2020 strategy? A few comments on European Commission: “Results of the public consultation on the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” This new note from the European Commission is clearly a step further down the road towards …Read More

Oberndorfer, L. (2015) “How The Troika Breaches EU Law“, Social Europe Journal, 18 March.   How did the troika come about formally? In 2010 it became apparent that the European constitution offers no clues as to how one should handle financial crises on this scale. So, instead of setting in train the democratic procedures designed to do this, EU law swiftly went out of the window and one seized on …Read More

Gertler, M. & Karadi, P. (2015) “Monetary policy and credit costs“, VoxEU Organisation, 10 March.   Evidence of the impact of monetary policy on economic activity supports conventional models with nominal rigidities. This column highlights the importance of the ‘credit channel’ of monetary policy. Unanticipated tightening produces a significant drop in real activity. However, monetary policy responses produce large movements in credit costs, which are due to the reaction of …Read More

Boeri, Τ. (2015) “Why We Need A Welfare Union In Europe“, Social Europe Journal, 23 February.   Are Europe’s welfare states fit to meet the demands brought on by the financial crisis? In an interview with EUROPP’s Managing Editor Stuart Brown, Tito Boeri discusses the need for a ‘stress test’ of the European welfare state, why citizens in southern European countries have been much more susceptible to poverty during the crisis, and …Read More

Oskar Lindgren, K. (2015) “Why participatory governance offers a realistic route to addressing the EU’s legitimacy crisis, LSE EUROPP, 24 February.   How can EU decision-making be brought closer to Europe’s citizens? Based on a case study of the ‘REACH’ regulation governing the production and use of chemical substances, Karl-Oskar Lindgren writes on the potential for a participatory governance approach to increase the EU’s legitimacy by enhancing the capacity for …Read More

Lizoain, D. (2015) “Which Side Are You On, Jeroen Dijsselbloem?“, Social Europe Journal, 18 February.   Just over a hundred years have passed since the greatest failure of European social democracy. The workers’ movement was unable to halt the needless slaughter of World War I. First, Jean Jaures was assassinated, silencing his powerful anti-militarist voice. Soon after, the German SPD voted to authorize war credits for the Kaiser. Proletarian internationalism …Read More