Abstract
The current financial crisis is proof that it was a mistake not to have shaped the EU as a proper political union from its very inception, since such a move would have allowed effective coordination of the member states’ various economic policies. Nonetheless, the financial crisis does hold out an opportunity for the European Union to be politically, economically, and institutionally strengthened—and the threat that it will fall apart if the necessary measures are not taken with due urgency. The challenge may also help strengthen the EU’s own international leadership. If this is to be achieved, it is essential to lay the foundations for proper economic government, and to further extend coordination of fiscal policy, as well as introducing the necessary structural reforms. And all of these changes must be inspired by the federal model.
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Notes
- 1.
The main reasons for this lacuna are well known: reluctance by Germany to share decision-making on the euro, the currency that had substituted its iconic Deutschmark and which was so clearly dominated by the German economy; and the position of Britain, which had stayed out of the euro and resisted economic government of the Eurozone.
- 2.
Montes (2001), pp. 89–94.
- 3.
- 4.
Montes, Pedro, in Rebelión: “La recuperación de la crisis económica pasa por romper con el euro”: “some economies have large surpluses on their external balance sheets; others, such as Portugal, Greece and Spain, are accumulating a vast deficit.” “This external deficit is the great problem.”
- 5.
Montes, Pedro in Rebelión: “La recuperación de la crisis económica pasa por romper con el euro.”
- 6.
“El futuro de la Unión Económica y Monetaria Europea: ¿qué ha fallado y qué reformas se requieren?”, Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez, Documento de Trabajo 54/2010, Fundación Alternativas, p. 36.
- 7.
- 8.
Rocha Vázquez, Manuel de la, “El futuro de la Unión Económica y Monetaria Europea: ¿qué ha fallado y qué reformas se requieren?”, Documento de Trabajo 54/2010, Fundación Alternativas, pp. 7 and 8.
- 9.
Navarro, Vicenç, “Si la Unión Europea tuviera un sistema federal como EEUU,” in Temas.
- 10.
There are conceptual problems in delimiting federalism. González Ilex, describes it as “an enemy of unitarianism, but at the same time a defender of unity in diversity,” in short, “a way of achieving unity by respecting pluralism.” See Encinar and Juan (1985), p. 81.
- 11.
- 12.
See the Schuman Declaration, which referred to a “Federation of States.” Other politicians who employed federalist ideology to a clearer or vaguer extent include Adenauer, Gasperi, Monnet, Spinelli, etc.
- 13.
Without ignoring the strong resistance to the adoption of agreements through community procedures at the expense of inter-governmental methods. An example of such resistance can be seen in application of the strategy of the Franco-German directorate, where Germany, and not the European institutions, has a strong influence. There is currently a strong dialectic between the two core ideas of integration and inter-governmental co-operation, whose origins can be traced back to the very inception of the communities.
- 14.
“El futuro de la Unión Económica y Monetaria Europea: ¿qué ha fallado y qué reformas se requieren?”, Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez, Documento de Trabajo 54/2010, Fundación Alternativas, p. 40.
- 15.
“El futuro de la Unión Económica y Monetaria Europea: ¿qué ha fallado y qué reformas se requieren?”, Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez, Documento de Trabajo 54/2010, Fundación Alternativas, p. 37.
- 16.
“El futuro de la Unión Económica y Monetaria Europea: ¿qué ha fallado y qué reformas se requieren?”, Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez, Documento de Trabajo 54/2010, Fundación Alternativas, pp. 38 and 39.
- 17.
de Elvira et al. (2009), p. 43.
- 18.
Rocha Vázquez, Manuel de la, “El futuro de la Unión Económica y Monetaria Europea: ¿qué ha fallado y qué reformas se requieren?”, Documento de Trabajo 54/2010, Fundación Alternativas, p. 33.
- 19.
Montes (2001), p. 90.
- 20.
Montes (2001), pp. 90 and 91.
- 21.
Montes (2001), p. 92.
- 22.
Montes (2001), p. 92.
- 23.
Mayer, Thomas, 2010, cit. in Rocha Vázquez, Manuel de la, “El futuro de la Unión Económica y Monetaria Europea: ¿qué ha fallado y qué reformas se requieren?”, Documento de Trabajo 54/2010, Fundación Alternativas, p. 34.
- 24.
Francisco Balaguer argues that a federal state would have been capable of resisting these tensions without capitulating to the major economic interests (in European Constitutional Law Review, No. 13, January to June 2010, Presentation).
- 25.
Balibar, Etienne, speaks of a “community public power”.
References
Crespo Ruiz de Elvira, Clara and Steinberg Wechsler, Federico, “La crisis financiera global como oportunidad para el fortalecimiento de la Unión Europea”, in Crisis económica y financiera: el papel de la Unión Europea, Eurobask, Consejo Vasco del Movimiento Europeo, 2009, p. 43
González Encinar, José Juan, El Estado unitario federal, ed. Tecnos, Madrid, 1985, p. 81
Martín and Pérez de Naclares, José, “El federalismo supranacional: ¿un nuevo modelo para la Unión Europea?”, http://eurobask.org/ficherosFTP/LIBROS/10_Universitas_2002.pdf
Montes, Pedro, La Historia inacabada del euro, Edit. Trotta, Madrid, 2001, pp. 89–94
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Chofre-Sirvent, J. (2013). Reinventing the European Union: The Financial Crisis, an Opportunity for a Federal Model. In: López Basaguren, A., Escajedo San Epifanio, L. (eds) The Ways of Federalism in Western Countries and the Horizons of Territorial Autonomy in Spain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27720-7_19
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