This Working Paper analyses the development of the interpretation that the European Commission has given to the TFEU provision concerning mechanisms for extensions of collective agreements. The paper examines how the Commission has reinterpreted these provision and the challenges this poses for...

Diese Analyse befasst sich mit der Absicherung der EU-Schulden, die gemäß dem neuen EU-Eigenmittelbeschluss zur Finanzierung des EU-Corona-Wiederaufbauplans Next Generation EU (NGEU) aufgenommen werden sollen. Diese Absicherung erfolgt unter anderem durch eine gesonderte...

Following its proclamation in 2017, the European Pillar of Social Rights was used by the Commission for the first time in the 2017/18 European Semester. However, much of the potential of its Social Scoreboard to spotlight social shortcomings in the EU remains untapped. Member States are showing...

Perhaps no other country in recent years has witnessed greater change in its collective bargaining framework than the UK. This paper describes the dramatic developments and their consequences. Like Gaul, it is in three parts. The first part charts the six major pieces of legislation –...

Auf ihrem letzten Gipfeltreffen Ende März haben die europäischen Staats- und Regierungschefs einen Europäischen Stabilisierungsmechanismus für die Zeit nach 2013, eine Schärfung des Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspaktes und einen Euro-Pakt-Plus beschlossen. Dies soll dazu führen, dass die...

[Introduction ...] The goal of this contribution is to take stock of the academic and policy discussions on the fiscal institutions of EMU, to confront the framework in place with what is known of the desirable properties of fiscal policy in a monetary union, and to discuss possible...

The European Semester is a new institutional process that provides EU member states with ex-ante guidance on fiscal and structural objectives. The Semester’s goals are ambitious and it is still uncertain how it will fit into the new EU economic governance framework. We find that member states...

The financial crisis has exposed the need to devise stronger and broader international and regional safety nets in order to deal with economic and financial shocks and allow for countries to adjust. The euro area has developed several such mechanisms over the last couple of years through a...

We analyze motivations for, and possible alternatives to, the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). With regard to the former, we identify domestic policy failures and various cross-country spillover effects; with regard to the latter, we contrast an economic-theory perspective on optimal corrective...

Extensive prior research on the economics of European monetary union highlighted some potential risks (the known unknowns) but overlooked others (the unknown unknowns). Asymmetries among participating countries, the potentially destabilising character of a one-size-fits all monetary policy, the...