Debt Crisis as a Global Emergency: The European Economic Constitution and Other Greek Fables

Abstract:     
The present paper provides a comprehensive legal analysis in Union law of the Greek bailout and the European stability mechanism. These measures, which were taken to rescue Greece from the debt crisis and to defend the Euro, pose a number of interesting questions as regards the construction of the EU economic constitution both from an internal and an external perspective. Obviously, the major question internally is the compatibility of these instruments between themselves and with Treaty provisions which prohibit a bailout. Externally, the absence of a framework in the relations between the European Union and the IMF is a cause for concern. The paper also discusses the EU institutional architecture in economic governance as it emerges from the combined effect of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon and the emergency measures taken to counteract the debt crisis.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 31

Keywords: EU law, Debt crisis, Greece, bailout, IMF, the Euro, EFSM, EFSF, eurozone

Accepted Paper Series