The Economic and Social Crisis and EMU: Where Now for the EU?

Abstract

This panel concerns one of the most hotly debated and sensitive topics in Europe today, namely the causes, impacts and legacy of the Economic and Social crisis. The global financial crisis, unleashed in 2008, precipitated a deep recession in Europe and ushered in years of austerity, slashed government spending, and soaring unemployment throughout many parts of the continent. Despite tentative signs that the crisis in some parts of Europe may be abating, with evidence of a fragile return to growth and a fall in unemployment in some parts, Europe and its citizens continue to suffer from the devastating effects of what has been termed ‘the Great Recession’. It is arguable that the simultaneous crisis-induced challenges of: the stability of the Eurozone, the competitiveness of the European economy, and the devastating legacy of unprecedented youth unemployment (with some commentators referring to a ‘lost generation’) present the greatest existential crisis the European project has yet faced. This panel assesses some of the responses of the European institutions and its member states to these challenges. A consideration of European Banking Union and its potential links to the democratisation of the new economic governance agenda, and the fate of coordinated wage-setting and social partnership in the crisis is presented. The question of the stability of political institutions in the crisis is explored, as are the implications of, and opportunities and challenges presented by, the introduction of the European semester. The impact of the crisis on the European Social Model including on the Welfare state, social policy reform and industrial relations practices is also considered. Ultimately this panel asks ‘Who pays for the crisis’ by addressing the question of burden-sharing, and by assessing some of the paths chosen to navigate a way out of the crisis, and the panelists consider, ‘where now for the EU?’.

Title	Details
'No more waiting for Godot' The 'European Semester' as a Time for Bringing Europe back to Parliamentary Debating: An Analysis of the Italian Case	View Paper Details
Stability of Political Support for National Political Institutions and the European Union During the Great Recession: Evidence From a Six-Wave Panel From the Netherlands	View Paper Details
Coordinated Wage-Setting and the Social Partnership under EMU: A New Framework for Analysis	View Paper Details
Who Pays for the Euro Zone Crisis? Explaining Crisis Burden Sharing Through Network Perspective	View Paper Details
European Industrial Relations in the Crisis: Lessons From the Periphery	View Paper Details