scholarly journals The Impact of the Financial Crisis on EU Economic Governance: A Struggle between Hard and Soft Law and Expansion of the EU Competences?

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Bekker ◽  
Ivana Palinkas
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar J. Saucedo Acosta ◽  
Samantha Rullán Rosanis

AbstractBackground: The European financial crisis has affected most of the EU member states, and European institutions have had to create new financial instruments to counter the impact. Most effects in the economic and political spheres can be attributed to high unemployment and changes in governments in peripheral countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Romania). Objectives: The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the economic and political effects of the European financial crisis in some peripheral countries that have implemented austerity policies. Methods/Approach: The methodology used is mixed: an analysis of the primary economic variables of the selected countries in comparison to those of countries with low-risk premium was performed, and the relation between the bailouts and elections was presented. Results: The exacerbation of the crisis in the Eurozone is mainly due to the high political costs of austerity measures and not the high level of public spending and/or the alternations in the governments of peripheral countries. Conclusions: The European financial crisis is primarily a result of weak economic governance, and its effects are differentiated. The peripheral countries possess the highest rates of unemployment, and there is a higher tendency towards political instability in rescued countries.


2017 ◽  
Vol 239 ◽  
pp. R3-R13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Begg

EU Member States, particularly in the Euro Area, have been pushed to adopt more extensive and intrusive fiscal rules, but what is the evidence that the rules are succeeding? The EU level Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) has been – and remains – the most visible rule-book, but it has been complemented by a profusion of national rules and by new provisions on other sources of macroeconomic imbalance. Much of the analysis of rules has concentrated on their technical merits, but tends to neglect the political economy of compliance. This paper examines the latter, looking at compliance with fiscal rules at EU and Member State levels and at the rules-based mechanisms for curbing other macroeconomic imbalances. It concludes that politically driven implementation and enforcement shortcomings have been given too little attention, putting at risk the integrity and effectiveness of the rules.


Author(s):  
Paul Craig

This chapter traces the development of what is now the EU. It first describes the origins of ideas of European unity. It then discusses the various treaties that paved the way towards broader European integration. These include the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty of 1951,the Single European Act 1986, the Treaty on European Union (TEU) of 1992, and the Lisbon Treaty of 2009. Next, the chapter turns to the impact of the global financial crisis on the EU and considers several theories of integration.


2020 ◽  
pp. 88-122
Author(s):  
Sylvia de Mars

This chapter examines the sources of EU law. As with domestic law, there are two overarching categories of EU law: primary law and secondary law. EU primary law includes the EU Treaties and the general principles of EU law. Meanwhile, EU secondary law includes regulations, directives, decisions, international agreements, and ‘soft law’. The chapter then looks at the legislative processes that are used to adopt secondary legislation, and assesses when, or in what policy areas, the EU can make law. It also considers two mechanisms that aim to prevent the EU from extending its legislative power beyond what the Treaties have granted it: the principle of subsidiarity and the principle of proportionality. Finally, the chapter addresses the impact of Brexit on EU law, assessing what will happen to EU law in the UK during the Withdrawal Agreement's transition period.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 289-312
Author(s):  
Niall J Lenihan

AbstractThis chapter addresses the question of how the EU has protected depositors in the financial crisis. The chapter will discuss (1) the impact in Europe of the US system for the protection of depositors, (2) the important changes made to the EU Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive, first in 2009 in response to the 2007 deposit run on Northern Rock, and then again in 2014 in response to the financial crisis, (3) the decision of the EFTA Court regarding the scope of Iceland’s obligations under the EU Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive, following the collapse of the Icelandic banking system in 2008, and (4) the introduction of a powerful depositor preference rule throughout the EU, in response to the resolution of the Cypriot banking system in 2013. This chapter argues that the EU has responded to the impact of the financial crisis on bank depositors by enhancing the legal protections available to depositors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-162
Author(s):  
Tomasz P. Woźniakowski

This article analyses the interactions between the members of the Polish parliament with the European commissioners in the context of the European Semester, the annual cycle of economic coordination. The Commission drafts crucial documents in this process which assess the implementation of the Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs): the Annual (Sustainable) Growth Survey and the Country Reports. The goal of this article is to assess how the Commission is held to account by a national parliament and how this affects the level of implementation of CSRs. The findings suggest that the Commission is accountable to this national parliament, even if the form of accountability taken is rather innovative and its policy impact limited, at both the EU (the CSRs tend to be immune to Members of [national] Parliament’s contestation) and the national level, as the implementation of CSRs seems to be independent of the level of their scrutiny.


2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Mamatzakis ◽  
Christos Staikouras

PurposeCommon Agriculture Police in the EU, direct payments, solvency and incomeDesign/methodology/approachWe employ agriculture data for all twenty-eight EU Member States. The data comes from the public Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) of the EU. In terms of methodology we employ panel regression and panel Vector Autoregression analysis (panel VAR) to take into account possible endogeneity issues.FindingsThe reported panel regressions, impulse response functions (IRFs) and variance decompositions (VDCs) show that agriculture income has been subdued due to negative shocks in direct payments and solvency. Our results do not support the hypothesis that higher direct payments would increase agriculture income. In addition, whilst solvency subdues agriculture income, investment asserts a positive impact on agriculture income.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research on the impact of direct payments of CAP on EU agriculture is warranted at a disaggregate level so as to examine whether there is variability in the underlying interlinkages at regional levelPractical implicationsAs a policy implication, and in light of the ongoing reform of the EU's CAP, we would propose to raise net value added in agriculture using targeted income support to small and medium-sized farms. The European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) would be also supportive. In addition, further enhancing financial integration across the EU would provide funds for investment in agriculture.Social implicationsAs social implication, one would propose to raise investment in agriculture, that is through the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP). The EERP is designed as a stimulus package set up to mitigate the consequences of the global financial crisis in the EU. Also, a way to boost agriculture income is through the credit channel of the on-going quantitative easing of the ECB, where unconventional monetary policy is aiming to support the growth prospect of the Euro area.Originality/valueThis study examines the impact of direct payments, which include all subsidies, of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) on agriculture income as measured by the net value added. We also control for solvency. Despite the magnitude of CAP on the EU budget, few studies investigate the impact of direct payments on income in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This is surprising given the importance of agriculture for the economic recovery of the EU that remains anaemic more than a decade after the crisis.


Author(s):  
Ana Mar Fernández Pasarín ◽  
Francesc Morata

This chapter examines the different aspects of Spain’s adaptation to the European Union, and more specifically how Europe became a source of benefits and modernization for the country. Spain is the only country among all those which have joined the EU after 1958 whose political parties and citizenry were in full support of acccession. Europeanization has affected most policy areas, particularly economic and social policies in response to EU pressures during the financial crisis. The chapter first considers the pattern of Spain’s relations with the EU before discussing the overall assessment of its EU membership among public opinion and political parties. It then analyses the impact of EU membership on Spain’s political institutions and governance, judicial politics, and policy adaptation in areas such as the Common Agricultural Policy and environmental policy. The chapter concludes by exploring how Spain’s unconditional support for integration has become more conditional since the financial crisis.


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