The European Monetary Union
Europe at the Crossroads

Analyzes the roots of Europe's economic decline, examining institutions of the European Union and exploring possibilities for reform.

Nicola Acocella (Author)

9781108840873, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 August 2020

300 pages
24 x 16 x 3.5 cm, 1.1 kg

'This is an excellent book on the economic, financial, and institutional integration of Europe, its crisis periods, challenges and misguided directions, initiated by wrong policies. The author very competently takes on those issues and points to better economic policies for the European Union. If one wants to understand what went wrong and what should be done better one should read this book.' Will Semmler, The New School for Social Research

The European Union is at a crossroads. This book analyzes the historical roots of the EU's monetary and financial institutions in order to better understand its struggle to maintain an economic and monetary union, as well as the ongoing problems facing the Euro. The institutions of the EU are based on the operation of free markets, a common monetary policy, and the European Central Bank. These founding policies have created many of the imbalances at the root of the ongoing European recession. Reemerging threats of populism and localism are poised to further disintegrate the European construction and may spark fierce opposition between countries. Acocella engages with these risks, suggesting detailed actions for reform within the EU and its institutions that may steer it away from further conflict, allowing it to better serve its member states and citizens.

Part I. The Historical and Institutional Background: 1. The Preparation of the European Economic and Monetary Union
2. The Institutions of European Economic and Monetary Union
3. Theoretical Foundations and Practical Interests Behind European Institutions
Part II. European Institutions in Action: 4. Asymmetries, Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Imbalances
5. The Great Recession: How It Developed in Europe
6. Policies and Institutions Put to the Test of the Great Recession
7. Asymmetries, Imbalances, Signals and Incentives to Change
Part III. Lines of Reform of the EMU Institutions: 8. How to Reform the EU and EMU: Broad Outlines
9. How to Reform the EU and EMU: Macroeconomic Instruments of the Common Strategy
10. How to Reform the EU and EMU: Microeconomic Instruments of the Common Strategy
11. Conclusions. The Future of the Union: The EMU at a Crossroads.

Subject Areas: Banking [KFFK], Economic history [KCZ], Political economy [KCP], Monetary economics [KCBM], Macroeconomics [KCB], EU & European institutions [JPSN2]