The years that changed the EU : the Greek crisis and euro area reform

Abstract

The chapter discusses the sovereign debt crisis in Greece and its implications in the wider context of the euro area and the Greek crisis-driven reform of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The Greek crisis initially prompted the implementation of emergency measures to stave off the bankruptcy of a member of the eurozone and subsequently a reassessment of its very institutional architecture, with reforms that are ongoing and still incomplete. The chapter maps the scale of reform that EMU underwent during the period 2010–2018 and matches these changes with developments in Greece. The key message that the chapter advances is positive, i.e. currency unions tend to be politically driven and it takes decades for them to mature and become effective. The Greek predicament may well attest to that.