The European Union in the grip of accumulated governance crises: the euro, the reform efforts, and the public-support dynamics

Abstract

This paper considers how the 2008 banking crisis and the subsequent financial and economic crises -more specifically, the sovereign debt crisis of several European Union (EU) member states and the crisis of the euro, the common currency of the euro zone -affect the political geography of the EU. This is done in the light of contradictory expectations drawn from main approaches of EU politics: intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. We consider responses from above (governance practices) and responses from below (public opinion) and conclude that in both cases different approaches highlight different aspects of the process and are largely complementary. IntroductionIn this paper, we consider how the 2008 banking crisis and the subsequent financial and economic crises -more specifically, the sovereign debt crisis of several European Union (EU) member states and the crisis of the euro, the common currency of the euro zone (hence the euro crisis) -affect the political geography of the EU. 1 This is done in the light of contradictory expectations regarding responses to the crisis, drawn from two main clusters of theories of EU politics: intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. The first see the EU primarily as the outcome of cooperation between national governments and the second as a (supranational) political system of its own kind. We focus our analysis on two types of responses. We consider first governance practices (responses from above): the role of EU institutions and national governments in the process and their position in resulting policies and (constitutional) rearrangements of the EU political system. This analysis will be based on policy documents, media reports (both conventional press and new media), and academic secondary sources. Second, we turn to the public opinion (responses from below): opinions of EU citizens regarding the crisis, the EU and its institutions, and EU policy responses. This analysis will be based on results from the biannual Eurobarometer polls among the populations of the member states.

European Union financial integration, a geography perspective

“…Post-crisis reform therefore focused on building "a wall around Europe" (Pagliari, 2013). Before that wall could be erected, bailouts produced distinctive governance crises unforeseen in the European treaties (Mamadouh & Van der Wusten, 2013). Jones et al (2016) label this a "failing forward" period, where member states' reluctance to Europeanize resulted in crippled policies entailing draconic consequences for the member states subject to them.…”

“…The future of large (investment) banks seemed clouded (Wójcik, 2012;Wójcik & MacDonald-Korth, 2015). Moreover, new rounds of sovereign bankruptcies were by now threatening Italy and Eurozone integrity (Mamadouh & Van der Wusten, 2013). In order to buy time, incoming ECB president Mario Draghi announced on 26 July 2012 (Draghi, 2012) that "the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro.…”