European Politics and the Euro Crisis: Ten Failures

Kirsty Hughes has published a paper on the current eurozone crisis for Friends of Europe, a think-tank based in Brussels.

The euro crisis is deepening and accelerating week by week. It is a political and economic crisis not only of the eurozone but of the European Union as a whole and with potentially far-reaching consequences. There is intense debate over the different likely outcomes to the crisis: whether the eurozone will survive intact with 17 members (although very likely with many member states mired in recession), or whether the eurozone may split or collapse entirely. All of these scenarios have major implications for the European Union as a whole politically as well as economically. If the eurozone collapses this could threaten the future of the EU altogether. If the zone splits or is mired in low growth, there will also be substantial economic and political impacts across European and internationally. Yet the focus of most of the discussion, and action, is on the fire-fighting to hold the eurozone together rather than on the wider political and democratic failures that have emerged starkly across the EU as a whole.

The paper can be read here.

Dr Kirsty Hughes is Associate Fellow of Friends of Europe and Senior Associate Fellow, Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford.