Merged Into One: Keystones of European Economic Governance, 1962–2012

In this article I assess the views of the European Commission on key subjects related to Europe’s economic governance. My examination is framed by a close reading of two documents, one issued in 1962 (‘the Action Programme for the Second Stage’) and the other in 2008 (‘EMU@10: successes and challenges after ten years of Economic and Monetary Union’). The resulting comparison reveals a pattern of intellectual flexibility on certain policy issues combined with almost dogmatic commitments on others. For example, the views expressed by the Commission regarding financial liberalization have changed significantly over the past half century; at the same time the Commission has insisted tenaciously on the necessity of moving towards (or later consolidating) a European monetary union. The nature of this pattern, and especially the defense of the same policy prescription under radically different circumstances, suggests a deeply-felt commitment rather than a reasoned analysis.