Dorrucci, E., Ioannou, D., Mongelli, F. P. & Terzi, A. (2015) “Europe’s challenging economic integration: Insights from a new index“, VoxEU Organisation, 15 April.
Despite a significant progress over the past decades, European integration still needs improvement in some areas. This column presents a long-term narrative of European integration by using a recently published European index of regional institutional integration. The index maps developments in European integration from 1958 to early 2015 on the basis of a new monthly dataset. The evidence shows that successful integration could be achieved with reforms that are inclusive, widely explained, understood, and accepted.
The process of European integration has brought about the largest and most open common market in the world, the euro, and the banking union. As further steps are being discussed – especially following the Four Presidents’ Report of December 2012 (Van Rompuy 2012) – it is useful to take a long view.
Our recent work provides insight into this historical view by updating the European index of regional institutional integration (Dorrucci et al. 2015). The index maps developments in European integration from 1958 to early 2015 on the basis of a new monthly dataset. It shows where progress was made, but also flags where efforts are still indispensable.
Relevant posts:
- Bernaciak, M. (2014) “Social Dumping and EU Integration Process“, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), Working Paper 2014.06, 14 October.
- Davies, H. (2014) “Europe’s Fitful Financial Integration“, Project Syndicate, 25 August.
- Anannya, Ο. (2014) “The Debate About Integration“, Politics in Britain – Ideas on Europe, 25 September.