A Europe of finance ministries?
The Eurogroup in the project of austerity policy restructuring of the euro zone.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v48i192.905Keywords:
Austerity, Eurogroup, Euro crisis, fiscal surveillance, European Union, Intergouvernementalism.Abstract
This article discusses the role the Eurogroup assumed during the euro crisis and the political-economic effects it had on the agenda of euro zone reform. The group was a main beneficiary of the reallocation of competences in the realm of European economic governance, which expanded its powers in the fields of fiscal surveillance, policy-making, institutional reform as well as the provision of assistance loans. The Eurogroup was successful in promoting a political project of restructuring the euro zone following an austerity political model since it was able to isolate its decision-making processes from external pressure and parliamentary control. A content analysis of official Eurogroup documents from 2010 to 2017 shows that the group’s self-conception has become that of a policy coordinator for the euro zone, whose members’ beliefs converge on the ideas of supply-side economics and who thus give priority to policies of structural reform and privatisation.
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