The New Economic Component of EMU: A Lawful and Effective Design?

Abstract

This analysis aims to set out clearly and succinctly the legal arrangements for macro-economic governance in EMU, legal challenges to that regime and different ways of assessing that new regime. It focuses on changes introduced from 2010, the year when the euro area crisis, and the response to it, began, and on changes to the law other than those concerning provision of sovereign debt loan assistance. The analysis first presents the (many) key EMU acronyms before outlining in four diagrams what is new in EMU by looking at what changes have been made since 2010. It outlines what further proposals in this area are included in the Five Presidents’ Report of June 2015. It then briefly examines three central legal challenges with the current regime: competence, compatibility and complexity. Finally it raises issues of the effectiveness of the EU macro-economic governance regime by considering three assessments: too early to say, abject failure or triumph of pragmatic intelligence. These raise questions of optimal policy design. The four diagrams accordingly provide the foundation for understanding the current regime, further proposed changes, legal challenges and issues of effectiveness.

Keywords: EMU, new legal design, European Semester, Stability and Growth Pact, challenges of competence, complexity, compatibility, assessing legal design

JEL Classification: E61