Crises and opportunities : strengthened European Union economic governance after the 2008 financial crisis

Abstract

This dissertation uses three major European integration theories __ neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism and historical institutionalism __ to analyze the European Union__s (EU__s) new developments during the post-2008 crisis era, particularly during the euro area sovereign debt crisis, with the purpose to grasp the developing trends of EU economic governance after 2008. Using congruence testing and process-tracing, hypotheses deducted from the three theories are tested by three selected cases of recent EU developments: the European Semester, the European Systemic Risk Board and the European Stability Mechanism. The acceptance, rejection or revision of the hypotheses makes a possible contribution to the ever developing European integration theories, and moreover, hypothesis test results provide answers to the main and sub research questions. The research shows that the crisis is also an opportunity for the EU to develop and mature, and EU economic governance has been strengthened after the 2008 global financial crisis. To address collective issues and challenges from holistic approaches is a tendency of EU economic governance in the future, which, tending to cut across different policy areas, requires effective communication, coordination and cooperation among various actors within the EU so as to bring about maximal synergistic effects of individual parts.