The Capital Markets Union (CMU) is a flagship project of the European Commission that promotes a deepening of the financial markets. It aims at opening up new sources of funding for SMEs, as well as improving the matching between savers and borrowers. Additionally, CMU is supposed to increase...

The euro crisis remains unresolved even as financial markets may seem calm for now. The current euro regime is inherently flawed, and recent reforms have failed to turn this dysfunctional regime into a viable one. Our investigation is informed by the "cartalist" critique of traditional "optimum...

In the wake of the ongoing global financial crisis, recently the European Commission has published a proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies. With this proposal the European Union aims at addressing calls for more regulation of the (global) financial...

As a result of the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the ECB was vested with significant supervisory tasks in the prudential field. The ECB exercises these tasks with a view to contribute to the safety and soundness of credit institutions and the stability of the financial...

European Banking Union (EBU) provides an important new context in which to examine how differentiation affects integration. This chapter considers: (1) the short to medium term appeal of EBU participation for Member States that do not use the euro (centripetal effects); and (ii) the potential...

Ever since its foundation, the European Union (EU) has struggled to develop a collective “European identity”, while being exposed to the challenges of globalization, financial disturbances, migration, Brexit, and the coronavirus. However, the hitherto unimaginable Russian inroad on...

The EMU accession countries are obliged to fulfill the Maastricht convergence criteria prior to entering the EMU. This paper uses a DSGE model of a two-sector small open economy, to address the following question: How do the Maastricht convergence criteria modify optimal monetary policy in an...