European Economic Governance

Course content

Costs and benefits of monetary union
The fragility of incomplete monetary unions and the transition to the EMU
Labour markets and mobility in the EU
The outbreak of the Great Recession and the financial assistance programs
Post-crisis EMU Governance and the impact on national welfare states
Fiscal policy in monetary unions: the EU response to Covid-19
The European Central Bank and monetary policy in the Eurozone
The reform of the European Economic Governance (2024)
Prospects of further EMU Reform, CMU and fiscal capacity

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

By the end of this course, having completed the essential reading list and attended classes, students should be able to:

Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the integration process and of the economic and political rationale for the establishment of the Single Market and EMU.
Understand how EU integration and macroeconomic policies in the EU and in the Euro area have been developed and have impacted different countries.
Demonstrate an advance understanding of the main causes of the economic crisis and their interrelations.
Demonstrate a critical understanding of EU’s key policies, instruments and underlying economic models, with particular reference to the instruments which emerged in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Assess critically the proposals which have been outlined to strengthen the economic governance and enhance integration both at the EU and Euro area level.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Classes will be organized in person and online, and will be recorded. The course for attending students is a varying mix of frontal lectures and group works. After the first three/four classes, which will be largely frontal, the following ones will be divided in two parts. In the first part, students will read and comment articles distributed to them in due advance. In the second part, slides-based teaching will be provided.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

Main textbook: De Grauwe. (2023) The economics of Monetary Union, OUP

Additional articles:
Cornelissen, R. and De Wispelaere, F. (2020) Sixty years of European social security coordination: achievements, controversies and challenges, in Vanhercke et al., Social policy in the European Union 1999-2019: the long and winding road
Rasnača, Z. (2018) Identifying the (dis) placement of ‘new’ Member State social interests in the posting of workers: the case of Latvia. European constitutional law review.
Garben, S. (2017) The Constitutional (Im) balance between 'the Market'and 'the Social'in the European Union, European Constitutional Law Review.
Verdun, A. (2015) A historical institutionalist explanation of the EU’s responses to the euro area financial crisis, JEPP
Dawson, M. (2018) New governance and the displacement of Social Europe: the case of the European Semester, European Constitutional Law Review, 14(1), pp. 191-209.
Vanhercke, B. (2020) From the Lisbon strategy to the European Pillar of Social Rights: the many lives of the Social Open Method of Coordination, in Vanhercke et al., Social policy in the European Union 1999-2019: the long and winding road.
Alcidi, C. and Gros, D. (2017) How to strengthen the European Semester? Research report.
Corti, F. and Huguenot-Noel, R. (2024) Towards a re-insurance union? SURE as an EU response to preserve jobs in the Covid-19 pandemic, Journal of European Social Policy.
Corti, F. and Vesan, P. (2023). From austerity‐conditionality towards a new investment‐led growth strategy: Social Europe after the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Social Policy And Administration.
Tanzi (2015). Fiscal and Monetary Policies During the Great Recession: A Critical Evaluation. Comp Econ Stud
Benigno et al. (2022). The European Monetary Policy Responses During the Pandemic Crisis. Open Econ Rev
Chesini and Fauri (2024). From One Crisis to Another: The European Central Bank’s Role from the Great Recession to the Ukraine War. Const Polit Econ
Erce, A. (2025) Assessing the Debt Sustainability Analysis Methodology in the EU’s New Economic Governance Framework, EPRS
Darvas, Z., Welslau, L. Zettelmeyer, J. (2024) Incorporating the impact of social investments and reforms in the European Union’s new fiscal framework.
Boivin, N. Darvas, Z. (2025) The European Union’s new fiscal framework: a good start, but challenges loom.

Contribution to the teaching profile

The aim of the course is to examine the EU integration process and the evolution of economic governance in Europe from the perspective of the creation of a single market and the single currency, up until the recent financial and economic crisis, including various reform options of the EMU.
The course should provide a broad understanding of the political, economic and social dimensions of European economic governance and equip students with all the fundamentals to critically assess the ongoing transforming process that is affecting European economic integration. A strong policy orientation will be combined with a political economy perspective in order to show students that the economic governance in the Union is not a politically neutral process. To this end, policy issues will be presented from both the Union and member states’ viewpoint.
Special emphasis will be given to the economic crises and how the EU responded to them. We will look at the causes and consequences of the Great Recession and the Eurozone crisis, point out the policy responses to the breakdown of global finance in 2007-8, explore the impact of the crisis on the European economy and society, and examine various interpretations of the crisis and alternative proposals for recovery and growth. Further attention will be paid to the Covid-19 crisis and the EU response to it, from the activation of the General escape clause to the creation of SURE and NGEU. The course will also illustrate the reviewed economic governance of the EU (2024)

Other information

Contacts

francesco.corti@ulb.be
hierro.castro@ulb.be

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

written examination
Oral presentation

written examination

Oral presentation

Grading is calculated as follows:

25% participation and group presentation + 75% Final Exam

The final exam will take place on 14th June from 11h00 to 14h00 (S.UA2.220 – Auditoire Guillissen). Students need to prepare the exam based on the following material:

De Grauwe (2023) The Economics of Monetary Union, Oxford University Press
Class presentations (slides are regularly provided ahead of the class)

The presentations of academic papers by groups can be used by students to further enrich their written replies to the questions and demonstrate their additional knowledge. The use of academic papers presentations will be considered as a plus in the assessment.

Language(s) of evaluation

english