ABSTRACT
The “Roadmap” presented by the European Commission in December 2017 serves as the starting point of this analysis. The following proposals are analysed: (1) Investment Stabilisation Function, (2) Structural Reform Support Programme, (3) Convergence Facility, (4) using the ESM as a backstop for the Single Resolution Fund, (5) European Deposit Insurance Scheme, (6) transforming the ESM into a European Monetary Fund under EU law, (7) incorporating the Fiscal Compact in EU law, and (8) appointing a Finance Minister of the eurozone. In each case I describe the main ingredients of the proposal, report its rationale, reveal the politics behind it, follow the course of the negotiations up to the end of 2019 (including the Franco-German suggestion of a common unemployment insurance fund) and point out the main weaknesses of the proposals. In the concluding section I present and discuss an alternative reform agenda proposed in a manifesto of 154 German professors of economics in May 2018.
