Project description

The research group EIE (Economics and Institutions in Europe) deals with issues related to the acceleration of the process of institutional completion in the EU, and more specifically the Economic and Monetary Union. The ECB and the European Commission (EC) have recalled repeatedly that it is necessary for the common organs and governments of member states to do more for making the economic and monetary integration stronger and more resilient to crises. Strengthened fiscal policy coordination, a mildly expansionary fiscal stance and the markedly expansionary turn of the ECB have managed to stabilize financial markets. Yet the situation is far from satisfactory and the process of integration is striving to survive more than flourish. The inclusion of institutionally different countries in an economic and monetary union lacking a common government appears prominent in the explanation of economic, political and social distress. Hence, the main sets of questions that require further research are the following:

• The construction of the EU in general and the EMU in particular and its compatibility with the institutional, structural and development variety of member countries.
• The institutional variety of EU member countries, both within and outside the EMU, and its consequences.
• Possible ways to assess and measure the variety and streamline it with European integration and in particular the common currency.
• Institutional and policy changes necessary to guarantee positive outcomes from the cohabitation of common goals and national variety.