Tag: Economic and Monetary union

There are signs that Europe may be turning a corner after years of economic and financial turmoil, with the key Euribor bank-to-bank lending rate and a German business index looking solid as unemployment falls in Spain.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come out against handing the European Commission more powers, in the clearest sign yet that she is reining in her ambitions to create a "fiscal union" in which euro members cede control of their budgets to Brussels.

Budget consolidation efforts are necessary but should be complemented with a clear promise that better times are lying ahead, says Karl Aiginger, director of the WIFO economic institute in Austria. Otherwise, people will reject it, he argues in an interview with EurActiv.

The European Commission proposed new ways on Wednesday (20 March) to coordinate eurozone economic policies, together with a cash incentive for change, as part of a plan to create an economic union to complement the single currency.

EU heads of states are meeting in Brussels on 13-14 December to hammer out an agreement on banking supervision and set out a longer-term roadmap to deepen the eurozone's economic and political integration. A new round of treaty changes and a dedicated budget for the eurozone are all on the agenda.

José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, has tabled a blueprint for deeper economic and monetary union in the eurozone, saying a more federal Europe is the only way to address the root causes of the sovereign debt crisis.

Social convergence should be a key consideration as member states embark on a new round of integration to complete the EMU, otherwise it will result in an intensification of competition between them and social dumping, writes Maria João Rodrigues.