Governance for the Eurozone: Integration or Disintegration?
The European University Institute (EUI) and the Wharton Financial Institutions Center (FIC) organized a conference entitled “Governance for the Eurozone: Integration or Disintegration?” The conference brought together leading economists, lawyers, political scientists and policymakers to discuss the current situation in the Eurozone with particular emphasis on its governance. The goal was to have an open and multidisciplinary discussion on this important topic to understand better where the Eurozone is going and what is needed to preserve it. This book summarizes the views presented there. The first part considers the role of public financial institutions and discusses the various responses of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in dealing with the European sovereign debt crisis; and the structure of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM). The second part covers the reform of the political and economic architecture and discusses the importance of structural reforms to manage and prevent the Euro crisis.It also analyzes the exit from a monetary union as a punishment for an unsuccessful reform and thus as incentive mechanism for the reform to be implemented.The third part analyzes whether the Eurozone is diverging into two groups and the potential consequence of a two tier Europe for the governance of the Eurozone. It also focuses on the function of treaties as an attempt of the EU institutions and governments to deal with the sovereign debt crisis during the past two years.