From the Maastricht Treaty to Post-crisis EMU: The ECB and Germany as Drivers of Change

The Eurozone crisis brought the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) to

the brink of collapse; the prevention of this required the use of unconventional measures

by the European Central Bank (ECB), the construction of new financial regulatory

institutions, and an amendment of EMU laws. These changes culminated in the

establishment of a banking union, though not a complete one, which shared risks among

European countries. While there is agreement that the response to the crisis changed the

EMU, there is no agreement on whether these changes should be considered ‘patches’

added to the existing institutional framework of the EMU, or as a more fundamental

change in the EMU institutional design.