ABSTRACT

The financial and economic crisis in Europe is not over, and the radically opposing strategies on how to proceed has only increased the complexity of problems in the region, revealing the shortcomings of the EU’s architecture. The European Union, perhaps for the first time in its history of more than seventy years, is being perceived as a threat to the financial and monetary stability of the world.

A Global Perspective on the European Economic Crisis explores the connection between internal EU actions and institutions and the external factors that influence the ongoing response to the European crisis. With a unique collection of international and interdisciplinary essays, this book considers the complex macroeconomic and challenging political landscape of Europe, looking at how and why the European Union is untenable in its current state. The chapters outline what should be done to make the common currency area more resilient, and explain why external events are particularly problematic for the EU, ultimately offering suggestions for what Europeans should do in order to avoid harmful internal consequences.

This volume confronts the causes of the crisis’ persistence, its economic and political consequences, and the impact of more recent events and policy decisions. It will be of interest to researchers and policy-makers keen to understand the EU relations and the influence of international organizations in the European economic crisis.

chapter |19 pages

Introduction

Where is Europe headed?

part I|12 pages

The European project

chapter 1|15 pages

The European Union in stormy seas

Beginning of the end or end of the beginning

chapter 3|11 pages

On the crisis of the EMU

Failed construction, failed implementation or failed crisis management?

chapter 4|17 pages

The European crisis

Testing the trust foundations of an economic and monetary union

chapter 7|19 pages

The monetary union and migration

part II|7 pages

The external context and the European Union

chapter 9|20 pages

The euro and eastern Europe

Six insiders, six outsiders – why so?

chapter 11|17 pages

The euro as a house of straw

Why Europe’s crisis is (still) linked to American housing

chapter 12|18 pages

Where goes Russia?

The risks of a continental divide

chapter 13|16 pages

Russia, the European Union, and the Ukrainian Crisis

A European or a Eurasian affair?