Mody, A. (2014) “Did the German court do Europe a favour?“, Bruegel Working Paper 2014/09, 15 July.   The European Central Bank’s Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme was a politically-pragmatic tool to diffuse the euro-area crisis. But it did not deal with the fundamental incompleteness of the European monetary union. As such, it blurred the boundary between monetary and fiscal policy. The fuzziness of this boundary helped in the short-term …Read More

Claeys, G. (2014) “The (not so) Unconventional Monetary Policy of the European Central Bank since 2008“, Policy Department A for the Monetary Dialogue discussions in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) of the European Parliament, 09 July.   The global financial and economic crisis forced major central banks to act swiftly and to innovate to avoid a free fall of their economies. This paper reviews in depth the measures …Read More

Bossone, B., Cattaneo, M. & Zibordi, G. (2014) “Which Options for Mr. Renzi to Revive Italy and Save the Euro?“, Economonitor – A Rubini Global Economics Project, 03 July.   Since 2008, Italy’s industrial production has shrunk 25 per cent. In the last quarter of 2013, while exports reached back to almost the same level as in 2007, household consumption was down by about 8 per cent and investment by …Read More

Fernández Corugedo. Ε. & Pérez Ruiz, Ε. (2014) “The EU Services Directive: Gains from Further Liberalization“, IMF Working Paper No. 14/113, 01 July.   The EU Services Directive was adopted in 2006 to foster competition in services across Europe. However, progress in liberalizing services has fallen short of expectations due to the article 15 of the Directive, which allows countries to maintain pre-existing restrictions if judged necessary to protect the …Read More

Gros, D. (2014) “The EMS Crisis of the 1990s: Parallels with the present crisis?“, Economic Policy, CEPS Working Documents, 28 March.   The EMS crisis of the 1990s illustrated the importance of a lack of confidence in price or exchange rate stability, whereas the present crisis illustrates the importance of a lack of confidence in fiscal sustainability. Theoretically the difference between the two should be minor since, in terms of …Read More

Piedrafita, S. & Lannoo, K. (2014) “The new European Parliament: Workable but impaired?“, Politics and Institutions, CEPS Commentaries, 27 June.   Given that the new European Parliament will be more Eurosceptical, radical and fragmented than its predecessors, Sonia Piedrafita and Karel Lannoo warn that it will face even tougher constraints in building the necessary majorities to pass legislation and adopt decisions. They argue in this new Commentary that this grave …Read More

Iso-Markku, Τ. (2014) “Euroscepticism vs. political pragmatism: The Finns Party tones down its criticism of the EU“, Politics and Institutions, EPIN Commentaries, 26 Ιουνίου.   While many Eurosceptic parties in Europe achieved historical successes in this year’s EP elections, Finland’s populist Finns Party was unable to fulfil its own high expectations. With the eurozone crisis at least temporarily subsiding and Finland’s own economy struggling, the party has been unable to …Read More

Gros, D. (2014) “Relative direct democratic legitimacy“, Economic Policy, CEPS Commentaries, 26 June.   As the European Council convenes today and tomorrow (June 26-27th) to confirm Jean-Claude Juncker as the candidate for President of the European Commission, CEPS Director Daniel Gros shows in this Commentary that the Council should de facto also be considered more a ‘mini parliament’ than an assembly of states and that the European Parliament cannot claim …Read More

Knott, E. (2014) “Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine’s signing of EU co-operation agreements marks their transition from ‘post-Soviet’ to ‘European’ states“, LSE EUROPP, 30 June.   On 27 June, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine signed co-operation agreements with the EU. Ellie Knott assesses what the agreements mean for each state and how they might influence future EU-Russia relations. She writes that while the agreements are largely technical in nature, their real value …Read More