Sovereign creditworthiness within the euro area hinges upon the credibility of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). We analyse whether political events that worsen the SGP's credibility result in a shared default risk premium for all euro members, therefore leading to a joint deterioration of creditworthiness. We especially examine the decisions and statements of the Commission and the Council of Economic and Finance Ministers. Analysing daily data through the 1999-2005 period with an ARMA-GARCH model, we find the Commission plays a decisive role in affecting investor evaluations, where its credibility-strengthening decisions decrease volatility and statements signalling a weakening of fiscal credibility spark uncertainty on financial markets. Our results stress the importance of creating credible fiscal institutions that preserve sovereign creditworthiness within the euro area.

The UK's withdrawal from the EU will have far-reaching consequences on the European economy. However, the ultimate consequences of Brexit, especially for financial markets, depend on the final agreement, which is still under negotiation. Currently, regulated financial services can be provided across borders under simplified conditions. Without a special agreement, these EU passports cease to apply for business activities between both jurisdictions after Brexit. The EU third-country regimes for non-EEA companies are too few and too unsecure for intensive relations in trade and services. Knowing that London is the leading global financial center, an adequate agreement needs to be found, to ensure affordable and sufficient financial services for business, investors, and consumers. Unfortunately, it appears almost impossible to find solutions for the often contrary interests and various thematic areas in the remaining negotiating period-a no deal scenario becomes more likely. As a result, market participants have started to adapt structures and processes accordingly, by relocating certain functions to the EU27. Nevertheless, it is up to the negotiators to reach an agreement, which achieves the best possible outcome for all affected parties taking into account the opportunity costs of a failure in present Brexit negotiations.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Eurozone Needs Exit Rules Abstract This paper argues that the key issue for defining and solving the Eurozone's (EZ) difficulties lies in readjusting the relationship between the centre and the periphery of the EZ. Our argument proceeds in two steps. Firstly, the basic finance problem of a centre-periphery system is captured by a threat game with perfect but incomplete information. To get close to the essence of today's crisis we analyze to what extent a 'troubled' periphery EZ member can negotiate a bailout from the center due to the existence of a negative externality arising from its potential default. Secondly, we analyze how establishing 'exit rules', which have recently also been advocated by Jacques Delors, would shift the centre-periphery relationship in a way that safeguard the stability of the EZ. We demonstrate that such rules may help limiting the scope for brinkmanship whereby fiscal problems in one member create a negative externality for the rest of the EZ. We show that such rules will strengthen the EZ through at least four channels. Terms of use: Documents inJEL-Code: E620, F330, H770, C700.

The Exchange-Rate Mechanism II (ERM II) is a Maastricht convergence criterion with which Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) must comply before they are admitted to the European Monetary Union (EMU). However, EMU accession is not a 'free lunch' as it entails so-called costs of convergence. Starting from the point of view that these new members of the European Union (EU) are in fact credibly committed to joining the EMU for political reasons -that is, ensuring political stability in CEECs -it is demonstrated that CEECs are able to pass some costs of convergence on to current EMU members: CEECs will under identifiable conditions threaten to halt the entire enlargement process by putting their exchange-rate regimes and, as a result, political stability at risk. In line with this rationale, the entire process of transition within ERM II, can be modelled as a twostage threat game, which may be solved by a Rubinstein bargaining solution.KEY WORDS • EMU enlargement • Rubinstein bargaining • threat game

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