European integration has had many successes and failures, Brexit being one of the biggest failures. Despite the setbacks, the EU has been acquiring more functions and members and has now reached a stage where it needs to become a political adult.
Europe’s transformations is the unifying theme for this collective work that brings together leading academics and policy makers from across Europe and beyond. When the geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting, the sustainability of the Western economic model is under serious challenge, and internal divisions in Europe are deep, we aim to look at the major issues in a ‘big picture’ perspective. We draw lessons from the way Europe has responded or not to changes both within and without in multiple crises in recent years, try to understand what is at stake, and consider alternative policy proposals. All our authors have long experience and widely recognized knowledge of a wide range of issues concerning European integration and Europe’s role in the world. They cross academic and professional boundaries and bring different perspectives as top analysts and policy makers, including two former prime ministers and a former US ambassador to the EU. They come together as friends, colleagues, and former students of Loukas Tsoukalis, celebrating his scholarship and overall contribution to the European public sphere. The volume is divided into three main parts. The first deals with issues of democracy and welfare. The second part deals with major changes in the European balance of power and the balance between institutions. The third part examines changes in the global system and Europe’s present and potential role within it.
The crisis has fundamentally transformed the economic and political landscape. Europe has been divided between creditors and debtors, between euro countries and the rest. Divisions run deep within countries as well, as inequalities grow faster. Trust has been low, the economics flawed and the politics toxic. Economic recovery is modest at best; it is also fragile and uneven. Courting with deflation, with large numbers of unemployed and anti-systemic parties on the rise, with public debt much higher than it was at the beginning of the crisis and private debt still very high, Europe seems to be facing the future on a wing and a prayer.
Europe needs a new grand bargain. The initiative can only come from the strong, not from the weak. The new grand bargain will require a broad coalition of countries and the main political families in Europe. Supply-side economics and the goal of long-term fiscal consolidation should be matched urgently with measures to boost demand and stimulate growth. The European project also needs to cater more for those on the losing side of a long economic transformation. As it stands, euro governance is neither effective nor legitimate. It needs stronger common institutions, more democratic accountability and an executive able to act with discretionary power. Fear of the alternative will not be able to keep the euro countries together for long. On the other hand, more flexibility and differentiation will be required for countries not ready to take the political leap forward.
If Europe continues with its habitual muddling through, it will remain weak, internally divided and inward looking: an ageing and declining continent, increasingly irrelevant in a rapidly changing world and with a highly unstable and poor neighborhood.
In the launch of the book which took place in Brussels, the main speakers were Mario Monti, Prime Minister of Italy, and Pervenche Berès, Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee.”The Delphic Oracle on Europe: Is there a Future for the European Union?” brings together leading thinkers and policy-makers from different academic disciplines and policy-oriented backgrounds from all over Europe.The chapters reflect on ways forward for the European Union (EU) in a time of global crisis and profound change. Contributors debate the institutional and political consequences of the Lisbon Treaty, the reform of economic governance in light of the economic and financial crisis, and Europe’s global role in a rapidly changing international and regional environment.The volume is divided into three parts: Part I focuses on the Union’s institutions and the question of leadership in an EU27+. Part II concentrates on the key elements of a new European contract, with an emphasis on matters of governance. And Part III discusses the stakes in the agonising search for the EU’s global role in a post-Lisbon and post-crisis world. A substantial concluding chapter written by Loukas Tsoukalis pulls the themes of the volume together and ends with a rallying cry for Europe the broad minded, translating the original meaning of the name Europe into new ideas and innovative policies for the 21st century.The list of contributors includes a number of well known expert and practitioners of European integration: Josep Borrell Fontelles, Jonas Condomines Beraud, Olaf Cramme, Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Dieter Helm, Philippe Herzog, Jolyon Howorth, Zaki Laidi, Roger Liddle, Pier Carlo Padoan, André Sapir, and Loukas Tsoukalis.
As fears of marginalisation in a rapidly changing world rise, this edited volume considers how the EU can redefine its role as a major political entity and confront the external challenges it must face up to. How it should reform itself, both internally and externally, in order to overcome and respond to the multifaceted challenges of the global age we now live in. In short, the challenge of making the EU “fit for purpose”.Needless to say, this is where controversy begins: what exactly is the EU’s “purpose” in the 21st century and what kind of reforms are required to render it “fit”? In this volume, leading thinkers and experts provide compelling answers to issues of defence and security, global economic governance, neighbourhood policy, trade, energy and climate change.This pamphlet is one of three volumes containing over thirty original policy papers on the full range of EU challenges. In addition, the synthesis report “An EU “fit for purpose in the global age – can we rise to the challenge?” provides a compact analysis of how the EU needs to evolve and operate if it is to live up to the expectations and hopes of many of its citizens.
Proceedings of a workshop organised in the framework of the RSCAS Pierre Werner Chair Programme on European Monetary Union, held at the European University Institute on 27 and 28 June 2003.
As the European Union moves towards enlargement, What Kind of Europe? pinpoints the crucial issues which will shape its future as a regional, economic, and political entity. Loukas Tsoukalis is one of the world’s leading scholars on European integration; in this book he writes for any reader interested in the key democratic choices facing Europe’s citizens.”It restored my belief that it is possible to be pro-European and analytical, indeed critical”.
–Ralf Dahrendorf”This is not just one more book on the theory of European integration, nor a specialized study of the intricacies of E.U. governance and policymaking. It is, quite simply, the most readable, comprehensive and balanced account yet of an extraordinary experiment in interstate cooperation.”
–Foreign Affairs”Loukas Tsoukalis… is an EU insider par excellence. He has managed to write a book about the European Union which takes on big questions and writes about them in clear and lively language…. all sides in the argument about the future of the European Union would profit from reading his book, which manages to summarise old arguments in a succinct and accessible way, while also introducing stimulating new ideas to the debate.”
–The Economist
“This is surely the best book on the state of the European Union at its present stage of development… Unusually for a book of such academic quality, it caters also for the general reader…”
–Journal of Common Market Studies
“Extremely well-written, this book touches lightly and deftly on many of the internal and external pressure building as the EU proceeds along its path to an unknown destination. Thus, it is a book to be recommended to the general reader who does not wish to become enmeshed in the exquisite minutiae of EU history and policy. An excellent overview of the main economic policies of the EU–not in great detail, but sketching their origins and major evolutions. They contain a highly readable account of the EU’s historical development that will be very informative for general readers. The exposition is complemented by a wealth of statistical data, intelligently presented, which lays out the broad economic trends of the past fifty years.”
–Political Science Quarterly
