Political economy of the European Union

Prefazione L'integrazione economica è sempre stata un processo dinamico, ma in questi anni l'Unione europea (UE) sta attraversando un periodo di cambiamento drammatico. La crisi economica di lunga durata ha trasformato radicalmente la struttura istituzionale dell'Eurozona, rimettendo spesso in discussione la permanenza di paesi come la Grecia nell'unione economica e monetaria, e persino l’esistenza stessa dell’Eurozona. L'entità dei recenti flussi migratori ha dimostrato l'inadeguatezza delle misure UE, nonché la necessità di superare le divergenze tra le politiche nazionali e di assicurare un maggior rispetto dei diritti umani. Entro il 2017 si terrà un referendum sulla permanenza del Regno Unito nell’UE, e l'eventuale uscita (Brexit) potrebbe cambiare la natura dell’Unione, in particolare per paesi come L'Irlanda. L'esigenza di misure vincolanti per affrontare la sfida di un simile mutamento di clima è sempre più difficile da evitare. L'obiettivo principale di questo testo è di presentare un'esposizione aggiornata e chiara della teoria dell'integrazione economica e delle politiche principali dell'Unione europea. Il manuale è il risultato dei corsi di politica economica europea per studenti universitari e post-universitari che ho tenuto nel corso degli anni all'Università di Siena e altrove (California State University, the European University Institute, Cornell College, Iowa, the Johns Hopkins Bologna Center, University College Dublin Summer School, the University of Luxembourg Summer School). Vorrei esprimere la mia gratitudine ai tanti studenti che, con le loro domande e i loro commenti, hanno alquanto contribuito alla stesura di questo libro. Sono poi molto grata a tutti coloro che con i loro suggerimenti e le loro critiche hanno migliorato questo libro, in particolare, Marta Colnago di McGraw Hill, Milano per la sua gentilezza e aiuto continuo. In diversi hanno letto le bozze di uno o più capitoli. Vorrei ringraziare in particolare: Sabrina Cavatorto, Sheila Chapman, Alberto Chilosi, Pompeo Della Posta, Valeria Fargion, Margaret Loseby, Massimiliano Montini, Paolo Nello, Mario Nuti, Luca Spataro e Milica Uvalic. Il testo aggiorna e sviluppa le tre edizioni del mio manuale in inglese, The European Union, Economics, Policies and History, e il collegato Online Learning Centre o sito web (the European Union Information Centre). Ringrazio per l’aiuto nella traduzione del testo in italiano soprattutto l’economista, Luca Spataro, ma anche Laura Di Pedrini (capitoli 2, 4, 8,10,11, 14, 15 e 17) e Chiara di Maria (capitoli 1,3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 16 e 18). La responsabilità per eventuali errori resta ovviamente mia. Susan Senior Nello, Università di Siena.

Questo saggio si sofferma sugli esiti della crisi dell’euro visti dall’altra parte dell’Atlantico e sull’azione della Banca Centrale Europea (BCE) per salvaguardare l’Eurozona dai possibili fallimenti dei PIIGS. Anche la Legge di stabilità italiana per il 2015 è stata condizionata dalla richiesta di una politica di austerity chiesta dai paesi privi di squilibri rilevanti dell’UEM e trasmessa attraverso la cosiddetta Troika, composta dalla BCE, dalla Commissione Europea (CE) e dal Fondo Monetario Internazionale (FMI). Quindi esso esamina le determinanti della domanda e dell’offerta di unione politica europea. Infine, una riflessione sullo stato di questo processo conclude il lavoro.

Στο κείμενο αυτό εξετάζεται η πολιτική οικονομία της ΕΕ, η θέση του μαρξισμού και τα πολιτικά καθήκοντα της Αριστεράς. Παρουσιάζονται οι βασικές εναλλακτικές θεωρήσεις (επίσημη, ριζοσπαστική και μαρξιστική) της ευρωπαϊκής ενοποίησης και το πώς εξελίχθηκαν κατά την ιστορική διαδρομή της. Επισημαίνεται ο απολογητικός χαρακτήρας των επίσημων θεωριών, ο ασταθής μεταρρυθμιστικός των ριζοσπαστικών και η απουσία από τα τέλη της δεκαετίας 1980 μιας συνεκτικής μαρξιστικής ανάλυσης. Η ιστορική διαδρομή της ευρωπαϊκής ενοποίησης διακρίνεται σε επιμέρους φάσεις, ενώ ιδιαίτερη έμφαση δίνεται στην τελευταία (μετά την παγκόσμια κρίση του 2007-08), που οδήγησε στη σημερινή κρίση της ΕΕ. Η τελευταία αναδεικνύει ξεκάθαρα τον αντιλαϊκό χαρακτήρα της ΕΕ και επιβάλλει την αναζωογόνηση της μαρξιστικής ανάλυσης για την ευρωπαϊκή ενοποίηση και τη σύγκρουση της Αριστεράς με το ιμπεριαλιστικό εγχείρημα της ΕΕ.

The British Pound, which was once the world’s number one traded currency, gave its place gradually between the years of 1945-56 to the US Dollar. The UK lost its prime position in the world as the result of World War I and the declining British Empire. The US confirmed its place as a major power, not only in the economy, but also in world politics, by means of its economy. However, the US Dollar began its downfall since 1990s, when the Deutsche Mark, French Franc and the Japanese Yen began to gain a share in the reserve holdings of central banks across the world. This process continued on and off in the course of time until 1999, when the Euro was introduced. As the Euro started to gain momentum, it became a potential rival for the US Dollar. That could be due to the fact that the US experienced a chronic account deficit for almost 25 years. Does it mean that the EU gains more power in world politics by means of its economy and the Euro becoming a major reserve currency at the expense of the US Dollar?

С 1-ого января 2014-ого годаЛатвия планирует стать полноценным членом Европейского экономического и валютного союза (далее в тексте-ЭМС) и отказаться от национальной валюты. Общество, в свою очередь, неоднозначно оценивает необходимость более плотной интеграции в ЕС. Различные социологические опросы (Factum, TNS Latvia, SKDS, DNB Latvijasbarometrs, Eurobarometer) свидетельствуют, что большая часть населения Латвии евроскептики, и выступают за сохранение национальной валюты.

La Commissione europea ha pubblicato il 13 gennaio 2015 una Comunicazione dal titolo “Making the best use of the flexibility within the existing rules of the Stability and Growth Pact” . La Comunicazione, senza apportare alcuna modifica alla normativa vigente, fornisce una nuova interpretazione in merito agli spazi di flessibilità esistenti all’interno del Patto di Stabilità e Crescita (PSC) . Le nuove linee guida della Commissione perseguono tre finalità principali: i) tenere maggiormente conto del ciclo economico dei singoli Stati membri; ii) incoraggiare l’attuazione effettiva delle riforme strutturali; iii) promuovere gli investimenti pubblici.
In merito alla flessibilità connessa agli investimenti, con tale documento la Commissione rinnova, con alcune novità di rilievo, la c.d. “clausola degli investimenti” introdotta nel luglio 2013.
Il presente lavoro, dopo aver delineato come gli investimenti pubblici siano stati interessati dalle misure di consolidamento fiscale adottate in Europa negli ultimi anni, mira a chiarire le caratteriste e le condizioni di implementazione della clausola di flessibilità, nelle sue due diverse versioni, del luglio 2013 e del gennaio 2015.

ABSTRACT
For the first time, this paper investigates the influence of ordoliberalism (OL) at both the ideational and regulative levels of
European integration processes regarding agricultural policy (i.e.
CAP), competition policy, and economic and monetary policy (i.e.
EMU) in comparison. The analytical key is an operationalisation of
OL into five elements. The paper generally confirms the hypotheses proposed that OL was and remains an ideational influence of
some importance, without exaggerating this influence, for
European integration processes, both at the constitutive level as
well as – but less so – at the practical level. However, there are
differences in the degree of influence across the various policy
areas. The influence is weakest in CAP and strongest in competition policy, but only since the Internal Market was proposed in the
mid-1980s.

This volume aims to show that austerity is not an isolated
phenomenon, a specific instance situated in recent events
in Europe. On the contrary, the book argues that structural
adjustment policies, an agenda that goes back quite some
time, have served as a backdrop to the currently generalized
austerity configuration. Scrutinizing such policies teaches
us that austerity has a historical depth and geographical
spread that are vaster than what is commonly perceived.

This paper reviews the extent to which EU budgetary tools provide a shock mitigation function and explores potential avenues to reform these tools to strengthen their stabilisation role. The EU budget is based on principles of medium-term budgeting, co-financing rules with fixed areas of intervention and a very limited possibility for budgetary reallocations. This rigid system makes EU financial support rather ill-suited to address a situation of fiscal emergency when a member state has to react to shocks. Nevertheless, there is evidence of a growing mandate for a stabilisation function within the EU budget, developed particularly in response to labour market shocks. The Youth Employment Initiative and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, despite their modest results, represent a concrete step towards introducing shock mitigation among the objectives of EU expenditure. Flexibility arrangements introduced in recent years within the EU budget also move in the direction of adapting the EU budgetary architecture to make it better suited to ex-post shock mitigation in the medium-term. The revenue side of the EU budget is also found to contribute to stabilisation. This paper argues that the EU policy design to address stabilisation, as developed so far, is not performing and is not well-suited for the task. Since resistance to enhancing the stabilisation capacity is lower at EU than at EMU level, we explore the room for reform of the post-2020 budget and propose an integrated approach to boost the responsiveness of the EU budget to unforeseen events through the establishment of an EU Fund for Employment and an extended mandate for the European Union Solidarity Fund.

The variety of capitalism-perspective is particularly well suited for an assessment of the broader political and economic effects of transnational private governance, given its focus on the interaction between the diverse economic institutions that are regulating
capitalist formations. The core notion here is “institutional complementarity,” i.e. “referring to situations in which the functionality of an institutional form is conditioned by other institutions” (Martin Höpner). Thus, substantial changes in one institution may
have wide-ranging consequences for other institutions and, correspondingly, for the model as a whole. Within the “variety of capitalism” (VoC)-perspective, the most sophisticated and most frequently used frame of reference is the distinction between
“Liberal Market Economies/LME” and “Coordinated Market Economies/CME,” with the first “Anglo-Saxon” model usually illustrated with the case of the U.S. and the latter
“Rhenish” model with Germany (Peter Hall and David Soskice). Currently, we can observe that institutions that are strongly interlinked with the LME model are being transplanted into CME type economies by means of transnational private governance, particularly within the European Union. Examples include accounting standards, rating
agencies and competition policy enforcement by law firms. Together, these recent activities tend to strongly undermine the institutional complementarities inherent in CMEs.

In Chapter 7, Vincent Gengnagel, Stephanie Beyer, Christian Baier and Richard Münch analyse the European Research Council as an example of a European contribution to a global academic capitalism. For EU integration to gain
traction as a socially significant process, the academic field is also required to
convey its specific authority and actively invest significant amounts of its respective symbolic capital into ‘Europe’. This, in turn, cannot be vertically imposed,
but requires the mobilisation of an academic sense of autonomy. Against this backdrop, the European Research Council (ERC), as the most respected representative of European academic excellence, is crucial for legitimating European
research policy in academia, and thus makes for a perfect case study to trace
processes of Europeanisation at the very core of academic autonomy. In doing so,
this chapter presents a field-theoretical analysis of the transformation of science
in Europe through the rise of academic capitalism, drawing on both qualitative
and quantitative research. The authors analyse (a) how the ERC targets the construction of a European framework for academic competition and acts as a lever
to open up national fields; (b) how this competition inherently creates inequalities
and furthers existing status hierarchies; and (c) ultimately acts as a catalyst for a
globally dominant form of academic capitalism under the US hegemony that it is
supposed to challenge.

eISBN 9781351189996

In this work, we analyzed the export- biased productivity, wage growth and the ULCP in Turkey. Then, by using input- output methods, we could show that Turkey has an economy which is able to be a part of the Euro system and Euro is compatible under the export- biased productivity growth in Turkey though its relatively high inflation. That means Maastricht inflation criterion should be revised in terms of countries’ economic performance.