Conflict among member states regarding the distribution of net financial burdens has been allowed to contaminate the entire design of the EU budget with very negative consequences in terms of equity, efficiency and transparency. To get around this problem and pave the way for a substantive...

The euro was expected to make Europe stronger and more integrated. So far, it has not succeeded in this endeavour. The EMU's original design underplayed the importance of banking, fiscal and political union and failed to provide the right incentives to promote the structural reforms needed to...