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The Euro is in crisis. Economic performance is diverging across EU countries. Politics is tense. Decision-making slow and often conflictive. Policymakers, it seems, are running out of options. Cyprus almost left the single currency by accident in 2013 whilst Greece looked set to opt out by choice (or requirement) just over two years later. The architects of the European Union imagined the Euro would be a crowning achievement; now everyone is asking what went wrong. They also want to know how to fix it.
There are many different answers to this pressing question but the key is identifying a path that will unlock a workable solution. In this incisive analysis, Erik Jones argues that we can solve the problems of the Euro by focusing not on the single currency but on the single market. The stresses and strains that Europe is experiencing at the moment derive from the forces unleashed through market liberalization dating back to the late 1980s, if not earlier. European policy-makers, he contends, must do more to channel those forces and to underpin market confidence. In doing so, they will not only safeguard the Euro, they will also help to preserve the achievements and the integrity of the European Union itself.
About the author
Erik Jones is Professor of European Studies and International Political Economy and Director of European and Eurasian Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University.
