Italy is presently one of the most vulnerable economies in the eurozone. Over the past twenty years it has failed to adapt to increasing global competition and its public finances have deteriorated dramatically. Even with huge fiscal support from the other members of the eurozone, Italy’s...

This paper highlights that the EMU transition process itself can pose challenges to individual accession countries and draws policy implications for ERM II. Differences in financial market development and international liabilities underscore the risks and benefits of ERM II, and may lead to...

The European summit in Dublin has shown that any further European integration will be determined in great measure by agreement on the financing of future Community budgets and by the EC’s expenditure policy. This article shows how the political controversy about the Community’s budget...