ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of Economic and monetary union (EMU) and its background, institutions and mechanisms and highlights some crucial points. It presents the institutions and mechanisms for economic coordination. I then illustrate how the economic governance has changed due to the Euro crisis affecting democratic processes at member state level. The chapter provides a gender critique of EMU follows investigating the gender democratic deficits, the lack of gender mainstreaming in the economic governance cycle and, finally, the ignorance towards gendered impacts of economic, fiscal and structural reforms. It discusses a general analysis of current finance and economics and reconstructs how abstract steering mechanisms and technocratic governance structures hamper a substantial dismantling of existing gender inequalities. A vital discussion among policy-makers was whether EMU should be introduced as a trigger towards ‘ever closer Union’ or if it could only be the final high point of integration.
