This paper discusses the creation of a European Banking Union. First, we discuss questions of design. We highlight seven fundamental choices that decision makers will need to make: Which EU countries should participate in the banking union? To which categories of banks should it apply? Which...

The Issue Reform of the governance of the euro area is being held back by disagreement on what is at the root of the euro areaâ??s woes. Pre-crisis, the euro area suffered from the built-up of financial imbalances, price and wage divergence and an insufficient focus on debt sustainability....

The economic profiles of southern Mediterranean countries (SMCs) bear some resemblance to those of south-eastern European countries and some former Soviet republics at the beginning of their economic transition in 1990. The SMCs resemble less the former communist countries that joined the...

After a thirty-year pause, discussions on the future of the international monetary system (IMS) have restarted. This is partly due to the fact that the IMS has facilitated, or at least not prevented, the economic and financial imbalances that led to the recent crisis. This paper argues that the...

The euro-area crisis has exposed deep deficiencies in the governance of European Economic and Monetary Union. However, crisis prevention in, and surveillance of, the euro area are not only the responsibility of European authorities. As members of the International Monetary Fund, all...

The Lisbon agenda was reborn in 2005 with its economic goals prioritised and a new system of governance. But "naming and shaming" of underperforming countries has been dropped and there will be no redrawing of the EU budget. The new emphasis is on national "ownership" of reforms. Jean...

Jean Pisani-Ferry and André Sapir call for more focused guidelines in Lisbon 2, an explicit methodology for evaluating National Reform Programmes, and better "ownership" of these programmes to encourage national debate on key areas of underperformance in member states. This paper, prepared at...

This Policy Contribution by André Sapir was presented to the ECOFIN informal meeting in Manchester. See also the Policy Brief based on this paper.