Remarks on the future of economic governance in Europe and the euro
Introductory remarks by Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at panel “The Agenda for Europe”, at Ambrosetti's Finance Forum on 'The Outlook for the Economy and Finance', Villa d’Este, Cernobbio, 8 April 2017
Reflection Paper on the Deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union
By European Commission, 2017
The euro is a great achievement, strongly supported by Europeans. But it is still far from perfect and is in need of reforms to help it deliver even better for all of us. This requires political determination, leadership and courage. Important lessons have been drawn from the past fifteen years and the economic situation is improving. However, it would be a mistake to consider the status quo as satisfactory. The euro is neither the origin of nor the only solution for the challenges faced today by Europeans. Yet, the euro creates specific opportunities and responsibilities of which we must be fully aware. In a globalised world, it provides us with benefits that national currencies and economies alone could never do. It protects us against global volatile exchange rates and is a strong player on the global currency markets. It oils the engine of the EU internal market. It is the best insurance policy for our savings and pensions against inflation.
There is by now growing awareness that further steps towards completing the Economic and Monetary Union are needed. To guide the work ahead, it is important first to agree on the objective and guiding principles for the way forward. The objective should be obvious: the euro needs to strengthen its role as a source of shared prosperity, economic and social welfare, based on inclusive and balanced growth and price stability.
The future of the European Economic and Monetary Union: European monetary and fiscal policies
By Neck, R., 2016
NOeG 2015, the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Austrian Economic Association, took place in Klagenfurt, June 5–6, 2015. It was organized by the Department of Economics, Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt. The main theme of the conference was ‘‘The Future of the European Economic and Monetary Union—European Monetary and Fiscal Policies’’. 55 papers dealing with macroeconomic policies in the European Union, especially the Euro Area, as well as other fields of economics were presented and discussed. Among the highlights were invited plenary papers by Mike Wickens (University of York), Seppo Honkapohja (Bank of Finland) and Ansgar Belke (University of Duisburg-Essen); and a plenary discussion on ‘‘The Future of the Euro’’ with Ansgar Belke, Peter Gauper (Raiffeisen Landesbank Karnten), Thomas Gehrig (University of Vienna), Ewald Nowotny (Oesterreichische Nationalbank) and Willi Semmler (New School for Social Research, New York) as invited speakers. The present special issue of Empirica—Journal of European Economics contains the invited papers and a selection of papers from the conference devoted to the main topic of the conference. They were selected from a larger number of submissions following the usual refereeing process of the journal.
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The UK and European economic and monetary union governance
By Eeckhout, P., 2014
This briefing considers the governance of economic and monetary union (EMU). It explores the current state of EU competences linked to EMU, the use of instruments outside the EU framework, the role of EU institutions, and the implications of banking union.
| The UK and European economic and monetary union governance | [ ] |
Visions for Economic Policy Coordination in Europe
By Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth – BMWFJ, 2013
The economic and financial crisis that in 2008 originated in the U.S., crossed over to the EU, and eventually impacted the whole world, revealed structural weaknesses of the EU and the Economic and Monetary Union. The serious economic problems affecting several Member States are due to heterogenous causes, like excessive sovereign debt and deficits, an instable banking sector, or current account imbalances. The EU has recognized the seriousness and reasons of these problems and acted fast to overcome them. First and foremost, with its rescue package, which evolved from the first bilateral assistance programmes to a full institution, it has succeeded to secure the stability of the Monetary Union. But the European Union has improved its regulation not only in the area of fiscal or other macroeconomic imbalances. Moreover, important steps toward the realisation of a European Banking Union are to be taken at this juncture. The swift and decisive action at the EU level has renewed and strengthened the credibility of the EU and the trust in its ability to solve upcoming problems.
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ULYSSES. Using Applied Research Results from ESPON as a Yardstick for Cross-border Spatial Development Planning
By ESPON, 2012.
With the Treaty of Lisbon of 2009 territorial cohesion became one of one of the main objectives of European policies, besides economic and social cohesion. The Treaty identifies territorial cohesion as a shared competency between the Union and the Member States.
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OECD Regional Outlook 2011 Building Resilient Regions for Stronger
By OECD, 2011.
This publication highlights the central role of regions and regional policies in generating an employment recovery and realising the innovation potential of OECD economies. The contribution of cities and rural areas in addressing climate change and shifting our economies towards green growth is also analysed. In addition to presenting overviews of a large body of OECD work on regional development and regional policy, this publication presents a unique debate over the role and potential of different approaches to regional policy: whether policies should be place or non place-based. This debate includes contributions from a number of leading academics and public officials working in the field.
Go to webpageInfrastructure and the Financial Crisis in Europe
Timo Välilä, Economic and Financial Studies, European Investment Bank (EIB), 2011
Infrastructure investment is 1/3 of government investment in normal times. Extra fiscal infrastructure stimulus investment in EU-27 in 2009-10 maybe is €20-30 bn + EU, EIB. Government infrastructure investment is especially sensitive to cyclical changes in the fiscal stance
After the Global Economic Crisis: Policy Implications for the Future of the European Territory.
Klaus R. Kunzmann, 2010.
Between 2008 and 2010 Europe was seriously hit by the tremendous repercussions of the global financial crisis. Whether the crisis is already over, or still affecting European, as well as local, regional and national economies in the decade ahead, is an open question.
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The Case for Agglomeration Economies in Europe
By ESPON, 2010.
This report sets out the findings from the CAEE study, whose primary purpose was to examine the relationship between agglomeration economies and city-regional/metropolitan governance. Any attempt to examine this relationship has to address significant conceptual as well as empirical challenges. However these challenges are worth facing because of the importance of linking together two vigorous debates that have taken place, in academia and policy-making circles, largely independently, in recent years. The first focuses on the importance of ‘new’ agglomeration economies to patterns of European spatial economic change and especially the apparent ‘stretching’ of national and international urban hierarchies (i.e. growing differences in the economic performance of urban areas). The second concerns claims that are made for the emerging importance of governance arrangements for ‘natural economic areas’ in facilitating effective adaptation to economic change.
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Communication from the Commission to the Council, EUROPE 2020, A Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
By European Comission, 2010.
2010 must mark a new beginning. I want Europe to emerge stronger from the economic and financial crisis. Economic realities are moving faster than political realities, as we have seen with the global impact of the financial crisis. We need to accept that the increased economic interdependence demands also a more determined and coherent response at the political level. The last two years have left millions unemployed. It has brought a burden of debt that will last for many years. It has brought new pressures on our social cohesion. It has also exposed some fundamental truths about the challenges that the European economy faces. And in the meantime, the global economy is moving forward. How Europe responds will determine our future.
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Public consultation on the future of EU 2020 strategy
EC Secretariat General, 2010
In presenting his programme for the new Commission, President Barroso set out his vision for where the European Union should be in 2020. He believes that the exit from the current crisis should be the point of entry into a new sustainable social market economy, a smarter, greener economy where our prosperity will result from innovation and from using resources better, and where knowledge will be the key input. To make this transformation happen, Europe needs a common agenda: the EU 2020 strategy.
| Europe 2020 strategy public consultation | [ ] |
Globalisation, international financial integration and the financial crisis: The future of European and international financial market regulation and supervision
Speech by José Manuel González-Páramo, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB
Institute of International and European Affairs,
Dublin 19 February 2010
The current financial crisis has spread across the world at an unusual speed and with surprisingly strong consequences. The fact that the tensions originating from a relatively small segment of the international financial market (the US market for sub-prime mortgage loans) evolved over time into a global crisis of a magnitude unseen in decades – wreaking havoc on a number of economies and the lives of millions – may deceive some into thinking that worldwide financial integration has gone too far and that we would better off under financial autarchy. It is therefore worthwhile to recall what the benefits of financial integration are, especially in Europe. Integrated financial markets help to realise the full economic potential by increasing competition and expanding markets. This results in lower intermediation costs and a more efficient allocation of capital, which in turn raises the potential for increased economic growth. For those European Member States which have gone even further by adopting the euro as the single currency, there are added benefits in terms of price transparency, lower interest rates, reduced transaction costs and the elimination of exchange rate fluctuations. These benefits are very substantial.
European Central Bank
Economic Crisis in Europe: Causes, Consequences
European Commission
Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
EUROPEAN ECONOMY 7|2009
In this special report, published on 14 September 2009, the Commission takes stock of Europe’s deepest recession since the 1930s. The report examines the anatomy of the crisis and concludes that the EU’s response was swift and decisive. But decision-makers are now grappling with how best to design ‘exit strategies’ from temporary support measures, and the focus of the policy debate is shifting from crisis control to longer-term measures supporting a return to growth. Key challenges will be balancing fi nancial stability and competition, and restoring fi scal probity without compromising recovery. The EU will have an important coordinating role in ensuring an orderly crisis resolution.
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AG2020: Foresight analysis for world agricultural markets (2020) and Europe
By Kristian Borch, 2009.
Technical University of Denmark
Co-funded by:
The European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development
"Are we approaching the beginning of the end of European agriculture? Or are we moving to a post-production era where alternatives to industrial farming are increasingly financially attractive?"
How can EU's Common Agricultural Policy be proactive to climate change and alternative outcomes of WTO negotiations?
How can the markets respond to increased demands on food safety and environmental sustainability, and the emergence of new technologies? Putting these questions and others into perspective is the focus of the EU project AG2020. Using novel foresight methods, including policy scenarios and "images of the future", AG2020 has integrates 13 international partners in order to evaluate how the Common Agricultural Policy could look like and how EU can get to favourable outcomes.
Study on the regional expenditure of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF) for the 2000-2006 period
Kai Böhme - SWECO, 2008
The European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund had altogether a budget of EUR 160 billion for the years 2000-2006. This study has established a database on ERDF and CF commitment data at NUTS 3 level (1,205 regions) for the 2 digit expenditure categories (20 categories). The aim of the database is to provide an overview of spending during the 2000- 2006 programming period, i.e. where it was focussed geographically and on what it has been spent? The programmes covered are the Cohesion Fund, ERDF Objective 1, ERDF Objective 2, URBAN and INTERREG IIIA. The total amount mapped in the database equals 98% of the 2000-2006 budget.
Taxation trends in the European Union
European Commission
Eurostat Statistical Books 2007
Taxation trends in the European Union' covers the development of taxation in all 27 Members of the European Union and Norway in a comparable format since 1995. The report is organised as follows: Part I offers an overview of taxation in Europe, describing the trends in the total tax ratio, the structure of revenues by tax type, the distribution of revenues amongst government levels, and the main developments in the rates of the personal and corporate income tax. Part II focuses on taxation of consumption, labour, and capital, as well as on environmental taxation. Part III consists of 28 Country Chapters illustrating, for each Member State (and Norway), the revenue trends and supplying a summary description of the tax system. This chapter outlines the main results from Parts I and II.
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Emerging Science and Technology priorities in public research policies in the EU, the US and Japan
Directorate-General for Research,
European Commission, 2006.
The main objective of the study is to examine the leading world economic areas on emerging science and technology priorities in public research policies and to relate these priorities to emerging science and technology developments and their economic and social rationales. The study identifies scientific and technological developments and research priorities in which Europe could take the lead in the years to come. By providing recommendations for public policy support to emerging science and technology priorities, the study aims at contributing to the development of research and innovation policies of the European Union.
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