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State Transformation and the European Integration Project

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State Transformation and the European Integration Project

Lessons from the Financial Crisis and the Greek Paradigm

CEPS,

15 min read
10 take-aways
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Euro-zone integration has changed the nature of national sovereignty.

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Editorial Rating

7

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  • Innovative

Recommendation

Integration or disintegration? The nonlinear trajectory of the euro zone since its inception would seem to pose this question, particularly in the wakes of the 2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent sovereign debt debacle. For some member states, indebtedness has dug an ever-widening and deepening hole, and they are unable to extricate themselves from it. The economic and social welfare of the populace are at stake. This in-depth analysis by professor and Greek parliament member Evangelos Venizelos, though written in political and legal economese, is an astute study of the tortuous challenges of European integration. getAbstract recommends it to policy makers, economists, financial managers and historians.

Summary

Sovereignty

The transformation of a collection of individual nations into a so-called United States of Europe is an inherently arduous, step-by-step, work in progress. The 2008 financial crisis and its subsequent public debt imbroglio exacerbated inequalities among the countries in the euro zone. Observers have called the viability of the bloc’s financial governance systems into doubt, along with members’ essential sovereignty.

The crises forced an accelerated reconfiguration whereby individual nations ceded numerous powers to the central body of the European Union. These changes occurred in the application of case law both in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and in national courts. Members consented to giving the EU greater supremacy, though it reduced their own sovereignty.

To the extent that members of the euro zone share a common currency, the debt of one country becomes an issue for all. The ability of an individual nation to manage its own debt exerts a powerful influence on the social welfare and well-being of its citizens. At the same time, a country’s submission to a common financial support mechanism limits its flexibility to exercise...

About the Author

Evangelos Venizelos, a member of the Greek parliament and a professor of constitutional law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, has served twice as Greece’s deputy prime minister and has held other top posts in government.

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