'Whatever it takes?' : how to move ahead in post-crisis Europe

Abstract

Covid-19 has demonstrated that economic governance reform in the EMU remains more urgent than ever. In the Eurozone sovereign crisis, the severe asymmetric shock that hit the euro area revealed important gaps in the institutional architecture. As a response, a number of specific policy initiatives were adopted; yet crucial elements of the reform package were never completed. Based on the book ‘Whatever It Takes – the Battle for Post-Crisis Europe’, George Papaconstantinou will examine the politics and economics in the process of economic governance reform to date, and outline a policy proposal for a common EU fiscal response to help economic recovery post-Covid. This involves bond issuance by the EU itself, based on current as well as on new own EU resources such as a tax on digital content and a carbon tax.