The governance of the eurozone

The Federal Trust convened in the first half of 2006 a broadly-based Working Group to examine possible future models for the governance of the European single currency. This report arises from the Working Group’s discussions.

This study by the Federal Trust is a critical review of the most important economic, political and institutional factors which have determined until now or which seem likely to determine in the future the evolution of the Eurozone and its structures of governance. It takes as its starting-point the belief that the single European currency does indeed present specific opportunities for deepening and accelerating the general process of European integration. The study will, however, equally acknowledge that substantial political and economic barriers exist to any rapid restructuring of the Eurozone’s workings and institutions. The range of likely changes that can
reasonably be anticipated by the end of the decade is not
wide. But if wholesale reconstruction of the single currency’s governance is unlikely, immobility is not a foregone conclusion either. The recommendations with which the report concludes attempt to reflect this balance of analysis.