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Argues that a European monetary and political union would likely lead to increased conflicts within Europe over monetary policy and the sharing of power and between Europe and the US over issues of foreign policy and trade.

Why did Euro Area member state governments decide to move to Banking Union (BU) — presented by proponents as a crucial move to 'complete' Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) — only in 2012, over twenty years after the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty? Why has a certain design for BU been chosen and some elements of this design prioritised over others? This paper interrogates previous academic accounts on the move to and the design of EMU — neofunctionalist, intergovernmentalist and constructivist — evaluating their explanatory power with reference to BU. It is argued that the asymmetrical design of EMU generated a variety of spill-overs and, hence, a neofunctionalist drive to supranationalise control over bank supervision and financial support for banks as part of the so-called 'completion' of EMU. However, intergovernmental negotiations informed by moral hazard and domestic political economy concerns explain the asymmetrical design of BU agreed by national governments.

"The Politics of the Eurogroup provides an intriguing look inside the euro crisis and the secretive forum of finance ministers that came to dominate it. The history of the European Union is a history of crises and the leaps of integration they triggered. As the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and global power competition are clouding the prospects of the European economies, the member states are looking for solutions. Yet they find their options highly constrained by the economic and political realities created in the decade of the euro crisis. This book fuses a critical political economy perspective on structural relations within the Economic and Monetary Union with a power-based approach to its institutions. It explains why a political project of European austerity emerged from the Eurogroup and side-lined alternative policies, with repercussions still felt today. The author introduces a series of interviews with key decision-makers - ministers, central bankers, EU officials - as well as leaked audio recordings from Eurogroup meetings to give an authentic report of the power struggles between finance ministers. The book retraces how the Eurogroup rose to prominence in the crisis and how a few northern countries - led by the German and Dutch finance ministries - were able to exploit the group's informal processes to shape the Economic and Monetary Union to their advantage. With its interdisciplinary and investigative approach, this book will be of great interest for scholars and students concerned with European integration, international political economy, economics, institutionalism, and governance. It will also be of value for policy makers in the fields of European politics and economic governance"--

Monetary financing is prohibited in most of the modern countries. The European Union bans the practice of monetary financing even in one of its core laws, i.e. in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Despite this explicit ban, some of the steps taken by the European Central Bank were considered by some as an example of the monetary financing and have been subject to review by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In this paper, the author outlined the fundamental cases dealing with the potential breach of the monetary financing in the EU. One of these cases is – at the time of finalizing this paper – still to be decided. As the CJEU decision might significantly affect the monetary policy of the Euro area, right now, till the CJEU decision will be made, the monetary policy in the EU is rather hard to predict. ; Měnové financování je zakázáno ve většině moderních států. Evropská unie zakazuje měnové financován ve svém primárním právu - ve Smlouvě o fungování Evropské unie. S ohledem na tento zákaz byly některé měnověpolitické kroky Evropské centrální banky (resp. Eurosystému) předmětem soudního přezkumu provedeného Soudním dvorem EU. V tomto příspěvku autor vymezil základní aspekty sporu týkajícího se údajného měnového financování. Jeden z případů nebyl dosud - k okamžiku odevzdání tohoto příspěvku - vyřešen. Autor poukazuje na právní aspekty v tom smyslu, že rozhodnutí Soudního dvoru EU v těchto otázkách může podstatným způsobem ovlivnit nahlížení na použití některých nestandardních měnověpolitických nástrojů ECB (resp. eurosystému), a tak, co se týče aspektů ekonomických, je v současné době v tomto aspektu měnová politika eurosystému hůře předvídatelná. ; Monetary financing is prohibited in most of the modern countries. The European Union bans the practice of monetary financing even in one of its core laws, i.e. in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Despite this explicit ban, some of the steps taken by the European Central Bank were considered by some as an example of the monetary financing and have been subject to review by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In this paper, the author outlined the fundamental cases dealing with the potential breach of the monetary financing in the EU. One of these cases is – at the time of finalizing this paper – still to be decided. As the CJEU decision might significantly affect the monetary policy of the Euro area, right now, till the CJEU decision will be made, the monetary policy in the EU is rather hard to predict.

Since 1989 an extremely rapid process of integration through the market has been taking place between the EU & Central & Eastern Europe. This operates through the three vehicles of integration: trade, foreign direct investment, & outward-processing trade, & has been encouraged by trade concessions & the process of legal approximation. In contrast, many of the political questions relating to enlargement in areas such as the Common Agricultural Policy, the Structural Funds, & Economic & Monetary Union still have not been resolved definitively. There remains a binomial asymmetry between the economic (market) & political aspects of integration. 6 Tables, 53 References. [Copyright 2002 Sage Publications Ltd.]

This paper focuses on the non linear adjustment of import prices in national currency to shocks in exchange rates and foreign prices measured in the exporters' currency of products originating outside the euro area and imported into European Union countries (EU 15). The paper looks at three different types of non linearities: (a) non proportional adjustment (the size of the adjustment grows more than proportionally with the size of the misalignments), (b) asymmetric adjustment to cost increasing and cost decreasing shocks, and (c) the existence of thresholds in the size of misalignments below which no adjustment takes place. There is evidence of more than proportional adjustment towards long run equilibrium in manufacturing industries. In these industries, the adjustment is faster the further away current import prices are from their implied long run equilibrium. In contrast, a proportional linear adjustment cannot be rejected for some other imports (especially within agricultural and commodity imports). There is also strong evidence of asymmetry in the adjustment to long run equilibrium. Deviations from long run equilibrium due to exchange rate appreciations of the home currency result in a faster adjustment than those caused by a home currency depreciation. Finally, we also find that adjustment takes place in the industries in our sample only when deviations are above certain thresholds, and that these thresholds tend to be somewhat smaller for manufacturing industries than for commodities

Research background: The core of coordinating a monetary and fiscal policy (policy mix) is based on combining both policies to achieve goals related to price stability, as well as economic growth and employment. In turn, the decisions of economic authorities in the monetary-fiscal game have a significant impact on economic variables in the economy. In the economic literature, the importance of monetary and fiscal policy co- ordination is emphasized as it has a positive effect on the stability of the economy. Purpose of the article: The aim of the article is to identify the dependencies between variables in the scope of fiscal policy and monetary policy under existing economic conditions and then assess their impact on the economy in the EU countries. Methods: To achieve this objective, the following research methods were used: a review of the scientific literature, a presentation of statistical data, and statistical research methods. Findings & Value added: The rationale for adopting such issues is to examine the im- pact of the financial crisis on the decisions of central banks and governments in the EU. The financial crisis has affected a change in the approach to conducting mone- tary and fiscal policy. The changing economic conditions forced economic authorities to take many decisions that affected the interaction between the central bank and the governments in the EU Member States. In many EU countries in the discussed period, there were significant interdependencies between variables in both monetary and fiscal policy.

This paper studies the design, effects and interactions of monetary and fiscal policies in the euro-area and between the euro-area and the non euro-area. To do so, a stylized three-country model of monetary and fiscal policy rules is constructed. It is analyzed how monetary and fiscal rules affect the adjustment dynamics in the individual euro-area countries, the aggregate euro-area and the US, which is used as a proxy of the non euro-area. Four aspects play an important role in the analysis: (i) the consequences of alternative monetary and fiscal policy rules, (ii) transatlantic spillovers and policy interactions, and the dynamics of the euro and euro-area current account, (iii) the consequences of asymmetries between euroarea countries - asymmetries in macroeconomic shocks, macroeconomic structures or policy preferences-, and between the euro-area and the US, (iv) the role of alternative degrees of backward and forward looking (expectations) in output and inflation.

"The Politics of the Eurogroup provides an intriguing look inside the euro crisis and the secretive forum of finance ministers that came to dominate it. The history of the European Union is a history of crises and the leaps of integration they triggered. As the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and global power competition are clouding the prospects of the European economies, the member states are looking for solutions. Yet they find their options highly constrained by the economic and political realities created in the decade of the euro crisis. This book fuses a critical political economy perspective on structural relations within the Economic and Monetary Union with a power-based approach to its institutions. It explains why a political project of European austerity emerged from the Eurogroup and side-lined alternative policies, with repercussions still felt today. The author introduces a series of interviews with key decision-makers - ministers, central bankers, EU officials - as well as leaked audio recordings from Eurogroup meetings to give an authentic report of the power struggles between finance ministers. The book retraces how the Eurogroup rose to prominence in the crisis and how a few northern countries - led by the German and Dutch finance ministries - were able to exploit the group's informal processes to shape the Economic and Monetary Union to their advantage. With its interdisciplinary and investigative approach, this book will be of great interest for scholars and students concerned with European integration, international political economy, economics, institutionalism, and governance. It will also be of value for policy makers in the fields of European politics and economic governance"--

Using panel data on European regions and applying Analysis of Covariance, our study provides an empirical assessment of the relative importance of national, regional and spatial factors for explaining variations of productivity. Our analysis shows that initial economic conditions or agglomeration and centrality are indeed relevant for differences in productivity levels. What is far more important, however, is which country a region belongs to. Productivity differences in the European Union are thus obviously dominated by national regimes. In light of the historically strong influence of the nation states, this result may come as no surprise. What is surprising is the fact that the role of countries has not decreased over time, despite intensive integration efforts (European Single Market, Economic and Monetary Union).

Trade unions in the Greek system of industrial relations (the system of wage and employment regulation, the bargaining structure and behaviour) have shown signs of change and modernisation since the late 80s and the early 90s. The question is whether the model of industrial relations that was dominant in the 70s and 80s, (state-controlled compulsory arbitration, conflict-oriented collective bargaining, political-party-dominated trade-unionism) has given way to a modem model of industrial relations (development of bipartite regulation, consensus-oriented collective bargaining, more union independence vs. the state and the party rivalries). To explore the prospects of modernisation of Greek trade unions we will discuss changes in the bargaining behaviour (content of collective agreements, strike activity, performance etc.) and the bargaining structure at the national, branch and company level. The role of new labour legislation in modernisation is also discussed. The influence of the Delors initiative for European social dialogue is taken into account as a factor that shaped the behaviour of the major social partners in Greece. The prospects for modernisation are finally evaluated in the context of the restructuring of the Greek labour market and the difficult convergence criteria for Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The process of modernisation is taking place in conditions of rising unemployment, increasing labour market segmentation, real wage cuts and deindustrialisation, which may buttress elements of continuity in Greek industrial relations.