Recent Eurozone reforms mark the most profound deepening of European integration since Maastricht. The Politics of Eurozone Reforms analyses how member states formed preferences in the politics of these reforms, and how preferences translated into policy outcomes on the European level. The chapters summarize insights on the role of different actors and institutions from four datasets based on 200 expert interviews, the analysis of 5000 policy documents and constitutional court cases in all EU member states. The findings confirm some common wisdom, dispel some myths, and provide insight into mechanisms facilitating further reforms. While quantitative analyses show that ‘Northern' and ‘Southern' member states were deeply divided, case study chapters provide a more refined view. Empirical data also indicates that reform decisions were dominated by governments and EU institutions but dispel the notion that Germany alone imposed its preferred policy. This book goes further and unpacks the legacies of the EMU crisis that make future reforms dependent on the reduction of financial sector risks, which is a necessary condition for rebuilding trust and restarting the gradual convergence of Eurozone reform preferences.
Sonja Puntscher Riekmann is Research Fellow at the Salzburg Centre of European Union Studies. Until her retirement in 2019, Sonja Puntscher Riekmann was Professor of Political Theory and European Politics at the University of Salzburg as well as academic director of the SCEUS. As academic director of SCEUS she was responsible for the Centre’s general research and dissemination strategy, the doctoral college financed by the Swiss Humer Foundation and the master programme European Union Studies. Also she was coordinator of the Horizon 2020 project EMUchoices titled “The Choice for Europe since Maastricht. Member States’ Preferences for Economic and Fiscal Integration”. She is full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, of the Board of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). She is vice-president of the European Forum Alpbach and a member of the High Level Group on Social Innovation of the Council of the EU.
Fabio Wasserfallen is Associate Professor and Chair of European Politics, Co-Director of the Institute of Political Science, University of Bern.
Zdenek Kudrna is a Researcher at the Salzburg Centre of European Union Studies at the University of Salzburg, where he implements the Horizont 2020 project analyzing economic and fiscal integration in the EU. His research focuses on the political economy of European integration and financial market regulation. Zdenek received a PhD in Political Economy from Central European University. He has taught at the University of Vienna, Charles University in Prague and Central European University in Budapest. He has been an advisor to the IMF and World Bank, UNDP and the Czech Minister of Finance. His work recently appeared in Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy and in a volume on the EU's decision traps (Oxford University Press). He comments regularly on European affairs in the Czech and Slovak media.
