Blogs call for eurozone reform

Thinkers seem to be ahead of governments, who have been stirred and shaken by markets.

On Comment is free (The Guardian) Linda Prieg argued that the eurozone has to address its fundamental structural problems. Monetary union requires fiscal union, as in the United States. Europe needs a more honest and nuanced debate about options: There's no future for the eurozone without fiscal union (9 August 2011).

While the political leaders have failed, only the European Central Bank has taken meaningful action to quell fears about Italy and Spain. The 17 members of the eurozone need to work in closer harmony, including the introduction of common eurobonds, wrote Daniel Mason on Public Service Europe: Politicians hand leadership role to ECB (10 August 2011).

The Eurozone's governance systems need to be transformed as its leaders and institutions have been repeatedly unable to get to grips with the problems. On his IIEA blog, Shane Fitzgerald discusses the effects of a reforming eurozone and a UK standing aloof: The UK and the Eurozone Crisis (10 August 2011).

On the FT Brussels blog, Stanley Pignal noted the criticism by Otmar Issing that the latest measures to stave off the eurozone crisis are dangerous and divisive. The current attempts are in conflict with ”No taxation without representation”: Otmar Issing frets on the bail-out (10 August 2011).

Social Europe Journal published an opinion piece, where George Soros demanded: Germany Must Defend the Euro (12 August 2011). The decisions of the 21 July eurozone summit are described as half-measures, but the article offers its own reform proposals.

The euroblog of Protesilaos Stavrou has been focused on the eurozone crisis, and highly critical of the ongoing efforts. In the blog post Is the crisis of the Euro leading to a Political Union? What kind of a union? (12 August 2011), he writes that a monetary union cannot possibly survive without a political union, which of course also implies a fiscal union. A political union can only be based on a democratically legitimate architecture, but now we are witnessing a widening of the existing democratic deficit. This is going to foster a new generation of euroskeptics.

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You find links to my latest contributions in the blog post Eurozone issues.



Ralf Grahn