Browsing by Subject "economic integration"

Emerging from the ruins of the World War II, European states sought to prevent new wars from breaking out by initiating a process of economic integration. The first step on the path to economic integration was the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, with further deepening by the establishment of the European Economic Community, eventually culminating in the establishment of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in the 1990s. Although the EMU can be considered the Holy Grail of European integration, its structure has significant shortcomings: monetary integration is strong, but economic integration remains superficial. This thesis examines the development of economic and fiscal integration in the European Union (EU) from the World War II to the 2020s. The analysis particularly seeks to answer how crises have impacted the progression of economic integration within the EU and what is the impact of the EU’s recent crisis response measures on the trajectory of fiscal integration. The thesis begins by examining the establishment of the EU and its initial stages of economic integration after the World War II. It focuses on the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in deepening integration, examining its methods of interpretation of Treaties to promote an ever closer Union. The thesis progresses chronologically, addressing the significance of the Eurozone crisis in deepening economic and fiscal integration. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, it focuses on the EU's strong response in the form of the recovery instrument and its impact on the progress of fiscal integration and the structural asymmetry of the EMU. The main conclusions of the thesis are that European economic and fiscal integration have deepened significantly because of existential crises, even beyond what the Treaty provisions would prima facie allow, thus raising questions of constitutionality. Integration has been facilitated in part by the vague language of the Treaties and the Court’s creative, pro- integrative approach to legal interpretation, resulting in the EU gaining new competences beyond those explicitly granted to it. EU crisis management measures have acted as clear steps towards a fiscal union, thus correcting the original asymmetry of the EMU, but they do not in themselves create a genuine fiscal union.