European Integration at the Crossroads: A Review Essay on the 50th Anniversary of Bela Balassa's Theory of Economic Integration

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1200-1229 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Sapir
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Imperfect Competition ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
Scale Economies ◽  
Economic Literature ◽  
History Of

Bela Balassa's Theory of Economic Integration, published fifty years ago, is a remarkable, yet little known book. This essay reviews developments in the economic literature and in the process of European integration since the book's publication, showing that it was incredibly prescient. It anticipated by more than twenty years the modern literature on economic integration that emphasizes scale economies, imperfect competition, and economic geography. It also predicted that monetary union cannot function properly without political unification, a condition well illustrated by the recent euro-debt crisis that is likely to be a watershed in the history of European integration. (JEL B31, F15, F36, G01)

scholarly journals Is This Us? The Construction of European Woman/Man in the Exhibition It’s Our History!

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffi De Jong
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
Treaty Of Rome ◽  
Autobiographical Accounts ◽  
European Woman ◽  
European Citizen

On the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the non-profit organisation Musée de l’Europe staged the exhibition It’s our history!. The subject of It’s our history! was the history of European integration from 1945 to today. The exhibition was intended to make European citizens aware that – as the exhibition’s manifesto stated: ’The History, with a capital H, of European construction is inextricable from our own personal history, that of each European citizen. It is not the reserve of those that govern us. We all shape it, as it shapes us, sometimes unbeknown to us. It’s our history!’ One of the means that the Musée de l’Europe chose as an illustration of this supposed interrelation of History and history are video testimonies in which 27 European citizens (one from each European member state) tell their own life stories. The present article explores this use of autobiographical accounts as didactic means in It’s our history!. The article argues that through the 27 Europeans, an image of European woman/man and European integration is advanced that glosses over internal conflicts in Europe’s recent history, leads to the construction of a model European citizen and serves as a symbol for the slogan ’unity in diversity’ in which Europe appears as more united than diverse.

scholarly journals The Euro And The European Debt Crisis

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Douglas Castleberry ◽  
Balasundram Maniam ◽  
Geetha Subramaniam
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
European Monetary Union ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Domino Effect ◽  
European Monetary ◽  
European Central ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up

This paper studies the history of the Euro leading up to its inception, what happened after the Euro was introduced into circulation and implications for its future. The Euro was set up to accommodate a unified currency while preserving sovereignty among nations who, less than a century ago, were mortal enemies. Preserving sovereignty weakened the ability to respond to crisis by design, and it wasnt long before the limits of the European Monetary Union were tested after a series of financial crisis threatened the very existence of the Euro. The Euro held together, yet the inability of the European Central Bank to assist member nations control subsequent debt following the financial crisis may wound the ability of the Euro to replace the dollar as the dominant world currency or even prove fatal. Greece is on the verge of collapse, and is so entangled with other Euro nations; a systemic domino effect will occur should any of the troubled member Eurozone nations collapse uncontrollably. Three options remain for the European Monetary Union, banding together and preserving the currency, grossly indebted countries exiting to preserve the health of countries which are more fiscally responsible, or the Euro may land inconsequentially between success and failure, never challenging the power of the dollar as the dominant world currency.

1. Integration and Disintegration before 1945

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Stirk
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
New Order ◽  
Nation State ◽  
World War ◽  
National Integration ◽  
Postwar Reconstruction ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines patterns of national integration and international disintegration in the decades before World War II. It first provides an overview of integration and disintegration before World War I, along with World War I and postwar reconstruction, before discussing the challenge of the New Order envisioned by Adolf Hitler. It argues that national integration was a source of myths that formed an obstacle to the consolidation of incipient European integration. It also shows that economic integration did not lead inexorably to political unification and that visions of empire, central to the history of the major European states, challenged the supposed pre-eminence of the nation state and were bound up, in varying degrees, with some visions of integration. Finally, the chapter explains how integration, often assumed to be a peaceful process in contrast to the violent proclivities of nationalism and the nation state, has not always taken a benign form.

scholarly journals What Is European Integration Really About? A Political Guide for Economists

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Spolaore
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Economic Literature ◽  
World War ◽  
Chain Reaction ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Political Unions

Europe's monetary union is part of a broader process of integration that started in the aftermath of World War II. In this “political guide for economists,” we look at the creation of the euro within the bigger picture of European integration. How and why were European institutions established? What is European integration really about? We address these questions from a political-economy perspective, building on ideas and results from the economic literature on the formation of states and political unions. Specifically, we look at the motivations, assumptions, and limitations of the European strategy initiated by Jean Monnet and his collaborators of partially integrating policy functions in a few areas with the expectation that more integration will follow in other areas in a sort of chain reaction toward an “ever-closer union.” The euro with its current problems is a child of that strategy and its limits.

Die Europäische Schuldenkrise: Ursachen und Lösungsstrategien

2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich Heinemann
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Management ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
European Monetary Union ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Economic Literature ◽  
European Monetary ◽  
Solution Strategies ◽  
Currency Area ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Destructive Potential

SummaryThis contribution highlights the complex causes of the European debt crisis and discusses available options for a solution. Relevant causes included are debt incentives which are effective permanently, the lacking optimality of the European currency area and deficient institutional debt brakes. Furthermore, the acute dimension of the crisis as a self-fulfilling crisis of confidence with a highly destructive potential is stressed. All solution strategies face the challenge that a self-fulfilling confidence crisis cannot be contained through an improvement of long-run fundamentals alone. Based on this analysis the crisis management is assessed. One insight is that the often criticized cautious and muddling-through approach towards a permanent solution is adequate. In contrast to that, allegedly courageous solutions like the introduction of eurobonds or the quick exclusion of crisis countries from the euro zone are unconvincing. Links to the economic literature of the early 1990s prove that the risk of a debt crisis has clearly been identified and analyzed as a particular risk of the European Monetary Union well before its start.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Maastricht Treaty ◽  
Economic And Monetary Union ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
European Currency ◽  
European Economic ◽  
Future Direction

In its more than seven decades of history European integration has gone through many stages of development. Some of them were incremental, but many more rather sudden, triggered or at least profoundly influenced by legal predicaments and political impasses, following the proverbial advice to ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’. The policy areas that are broadly abridged under the term Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) form no exception in this regard. EMU is deeply rooted in and following the inherent logic of political integration through gradual economic integration proclaimed in the well-known Schuman Declaration and thereafter given shape through the Treaty establishing the Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the subsequent Treaty establishing the European Economic Community. Yet, it was the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty/TEU), which was meant to put an end to the at times fiercely led (academic) debates on the future direction of European integration and its democratic credentials, that finally provided the necessary legal impetus for the establishment of an economic and monetary union and the creation of a supranational, single European currency.

scholarly journals Intensyfikacja współpracy gospodarczej w Unii Europejskiej w latach 2010‑2019 w świetle teorii nowej międzyrządowości

Politeja ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3(66)) ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Klaudia Kudławiec
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Economic And Monetary Union ◽  
System Reform ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Union ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Economic Union

Intensification of Economic Cooperation in the European Union in the Years 2010-2019 in the Light of the Theory of New Intergovernmentality The subject of the article is the process of intensifying economic integration in the European Union in the years 2010-2019, which is to lead to the creation of a real Economic and Monetary Union. The article is based on the theory of new intergovernmentalism, through which the eurozone system reform has been analyzed. The first part presents the main assumptions of the theory of new intergovernmentalism in relation to two models of European integration: intergovernmental and supranational. The second part was devoted to four projects included in the future Economic and Monetary Union: Financial Union, Economic Union, Fiscal Union and Political Union.

scholarly journals Integracja gospodarcza Danii, Finlandii i Szwecji z Unią Europejską

2015 ◽  
pp. 227-247
Author(s):  
Leszek Leśniewski
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
European Monetary Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Monetary ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
Opt Out

This paper explores economic integration of the Scandinavian states (Denmark, Finland and Sweden) with the European Union during the global crisis. The aim of this paper is to present comparative study of different choices made by these countries with regard to the European integration: EMU opt – out clause in Denmark, membership of Finland in the European Monetary Union and derogation for Sweden – and as result different reaction to the financial and economic crises

European Integration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann P. Arnason
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
History Of ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes ◽  
The Eu

Different understandings of European integration, its background and present problems are represented in this book, but they share an emphasis on historical processes, geopolitical dynamics and regional diversity. The introduction surveys approaches to the question of European continuities and discontinuities, before going on to an overview of chapters. The following three contributions deal with long-term perspectives, including the question of Europe as a civilisational entity, the civilisational crisis of the twentieth century, marked by wars and totalitarian regimes, and a comparison of the European Union with the Habsburg Empire, with particular emphasis on similar crisis symptoms. The next three chapters discuss various aspects and contexts of the present crisis. Reflections on the Brexit controversy throw light on a longer history of intra-Union rivalry, enduring disputes and changing external conditions. An analysis of efforts to strengthen the EU’s legal and constitutional framework, and of resistances to them, highlights the unfinished agenda of integration. A closer look at the much-disputed Islamic presence in Europe suggests that an interdependent radicalization of Islamism and the European extreme right is a major factor in current political developments. Three concluding chapters adopt specific regional perspectives. Central and Eastern European countries, especially Poland, are following a path that leads to conflicts with dominant orientations of the EU, but this also raises questions about Europe’s future. The record of Scandinavian policies in relation to Europe exemplifies more general problems faced by peripheral regions. Finally, growing dissonances and divergences within the EU may strengthen the case for Eurasian perspectives.

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